This essay is interesting because it reveals truths about Christian history and Islamic history that were unknown to me.  One could have guessed that religions Islam and Christianity did not see eye to eye back then, as they still do not fully today.  And as we know, there have been many wars fought over religious beliefs.  I did not realize that Christianity was so prejudice against Islam though, because today the Church teaches to accept all faiths and respect them.  Also, it is interesting that the first threat the Christians felt about Islam did not have to do with religion at all, but more with politics.  It makes sense that Christians and Christian leaders would feel militarily threatened by Islamic people because society revolved around the religious aspect of life--religious leaders were political leaders and therefore military leaders.  Christians were afraid that Islamic forces would be able to take them over.  Christians also wanted to just "wait out" Islam because they did not think it would last, one reason they did not think about its religious consequences.  Only later did they consider the spiritual threats that Islam produced.  Another reason they did not see them as a threat was due to the fact that they thought Muslims were just pagan idol-worshipers and barbarians.  They had a total misunderstand of the faith, and that is obviously what Dante believed when he wrote about Muhammad in The Inferno.  Now that all that history has sunk into my brain, I do not find that where Dante placed Muhammad odd at all.  Obviously, a Christian strong in his faith, Dante would not have agreed with what he believed Muhammad and the Islamic religion stood for.