Eyes That Do Not See

Investor's Business Daily turns a phrase neatly: A Religion's Reputation At Stake -- Islamofascism: Just when you thought Islam's skin couldn't get any thinner, angry Muslims from Khartoum to London want to execute a British teacher over a blasphemous teddy bear. The article asks:

Is violence integral to Islam? It's a valid question. When the pope raised it, Muslims proved him wrong by threatening to cut off his head. Message: Don't call us intolerant or we'll kill you.

If this sounds "Islamophobic," a favorite retort of the Muslim-rights group CAIR, straighten us out. We looked for a condemnation of the Sudanese troglodytes on its Web site and came up short.

[ ... ]

CAIR encourages Muslims in America to improve the coverage of Islam in the media. It says they should break the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists, and that of Islam as "archaic, barbaric, irrational" and a "religion of violence."
Well, what are you waiting for? Condemn the Islamic court's punishment of an innocent teacher. Certainly CAIR doesn't agree that naming a toy animal after the Muslim prophet is a crime just because it could be considered by the most extremist hard-liner to be an insult. Or does it?

The vast majority of Americans would change their negative view of Islam if Muslims would strongly condemn such extremism. But for some reason, they won't do it.

Until they do, they can't complain about Islamophobia.

My perspective as a reader of René Girard is this: Until the expression of the primitive Sacred called Islam ceases to erase the mental capacity to grow up past crowd contagion, bloodthirstiness, and desire for scapegoats, all precautions must be taken to protect what is left of truth, goodness, and beauty in the West. For the primitive Sacred worships structurally the dark gods of the blood, vengeance, and havoc, regardless of its ostensible self-justifications. Such behavior is essential to its template of conventional religion, anthropologically speaking.

If the governmental and corporate monetary institution leaders in the Christ-haunted West keeps pretending not to see this about Islam, or try to "ignore" it out of false charity, soon we too won't be able to talk about it. Worse, we will legislate the ability to see or thematize it out of existence. Finally, the recrudescence of the primitive Sacred will blot out the ability to see it at all. We see this in CAIR and proponents of Islam who can see "hate crimes" (harsh language) and "Islamophobia"of others, but not the violence, bloodshed, and paganism among their own.

At the present rate of Islamification of the West, how long, do you suppose, will it take for this to occur?