Waiting to Happen

It can be, and frequently is, argued that this kind of near-miss (in this case) is perpetrated by the lunatic fringe; that it can happen among the lunatics of any religion, including the Christian faith; that it is unfair to stereotype all members of the Scimitar on the basis of a lone lunatic's actions.

All of which is true, except for the fact that the Scimitar seems invariably to produce more "lone lunatics" than other religious communities that seem far more capable of being assimilated into their dominant cultures. Result? More potential catastrophes like this.

Solution to the problem? Good question.

Until those who are charged with the protection of the innocent and safeguarding of nations take into full account the anthropological realities explicated by René Girard's mimetic theory in general and the bloodlust of the "primitive sacred" (read: pagan), regardless of the Scimitar's ostensible claims of monotheism, all attempts to claim that the Scimitar is "just another of the world's religions" will ring hollow.

And dangerous.