Mirror-image Mainstreams

The two Mainstreams I have in mind are the broader Western Mainstream, dedicated to defending Islam and the vast majority of Muslims (other than a Tiny Minority of Extremists who are trying to "hijack" Islam); and the Counter-Jihad Mainstream, still behind the curve on the Problem (of Islam) and the Problem of the Problem -- namely, the secondary problem of the aforementioned Western Mainstream in denial about the main problem (of Islam).

I couldn't have found a more exquisite representation of the interlocking, mobius-strip resemblance between these two Mainstreams -- not even had Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) himself (or his pen-&-ink-wielding Cousin Itt Doppelganger) penned it -- than the one I hit upon in Jihad Watch, penned (naturally) by the Dean & Don of the Counter-Jihad Mainstream, Robert Spencer.

Editorializing on a story about Muslim jihadists killing what appears to be other Muslims in Mozambique, Robert says:

The fact that Islamic jihadists kill Muslims has led many Western analysts to conclude that the jihadists are not actually Muslim, since the Qur’an forbids Muslims to kill other Muslims (4:92). But heresy, apostasy, and blasphemy carry death sentences in Islamic law, and so Muslims of differing sects have frequently killed each other... [bold emphasis mine]

Robert is correct -- this is what the broader Western Mainstream does. What he and his followers seem oblivious to, however, is their own mirror image of this specious reasoning:

The fact that Islamic jihadists kill Muslims has led many in the Counter-Jihad to conclude that the Muslim victims of the jihadists are not jihadists also.