:"For most of the [[Middle Ages]] and during the early part of the [[Renaissance]] in Europe, [[Islam]] was believed to be [[demon]]ic religion of [[apostasy]], [[blasphemy]], and obscurity. It did not seem to matter that [[Muslim]]s considered [[Mohammed]] a [[prophet]] and not a [[god]]; what mattered to [[Christian]]s was that Mohammed was a [[false prophet]], a sower of discord, a [[sensualist]], a [[hypocrite]], an agent of the [[devil]]....Real events in the real world made of Islam a considerable political force. For hundreds of years great Islamic armies and navies threatened [[Europe]], destroyed its outposts, colonized its domains..... Even when the world of Islam entered a period of decline and Europe a period of ascendancy, fear of '[[Mohammedanism]]' persisted. Closer to Europe than any of the other non-Christian religions, the [[Islamic world]] by its very adjacency evoked memories of its encroachments on Europe, and always, of its latent power again and again to disturb the West. Other great [[civilization]]s of the East - [[India]] and [[China]] among them - could be thought of as defeated and distant and hence not a constant worry. Only Islam seemed never to have submitted completely to [[the West]]; and when, after the dramatic oil-price rises of the early 1970s, the Muslim world seemed once more on the verge of repeating its early conquests, the whole West seemed to shudder."<ref>Covering Islam; book by Edward Said; P4-5; 1981</ref>