Jealousy

For no particular reason, I perused a typically stupid rant at American Daily. The line that caught my eye was this:

How would Leftists respond? Would they wage rhetorical war against Islam? Do any Leftists seem that brave?

Not the first time I've seen that statement that Islam gets treated more gently because people are afraid of getting themselves killed. But I keep seeing it in this same sort of context: not that it reflects worse on Islamists, that they're willing to kill at the drop of a hat. No, the real atrocity is that it's not the Religious Right that the world is afraid of. There's a disturbing streak of envy that runs through these statements: "They wouldn't talk about us like that if we were as violent as the Muslims!" I think I distinctly hear the sound of the religious extremists goading themselves into action: "Are we gonna take that? The Muslims wouldn't take that!"

We should pay more attention to this. Maybe I read too much into these statements, but I don't think so. The radical religious agenda is slipping, with gay rights going mainstream, the anti-abortion movement still stalemated, and their creationist Trojan Horses getting blown out of the water every time. I expect frustration to lead to violence yet.