A few Saturdays ago, my wife and I visited a local Muslim school that was hosting lunch as a way for neighbors to meet each other and to learn about Islam. The imam handled people’s questions with warmth, information, and humor. When asked whether Muslims felt that they had been mistreated in our area, he answered, “I wouldn’t say that we’ve been mistreated, but that we are misunderstood.” I thought that was a fine distinction, and one that the political mainstream seems increasingly incapable of making. I want to write about this tendency on the part of the powerful to confuse umbrage with injustice, using two sources for my thinking: the anthropological philosophy of René Girard, and the worldview portrayed in the relatively recent…

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