Scratch that. Partial answer just in. One already has.
Here (Retreating Into Silence, March 6, 2011), Mark Steyn tells a prescient story:
A prominent British imam has been forced to retract his claims that Islam is compatible with Darwin’s theory of evolution after receiving death threats from fundamentalists.This is not in Lahore or Cairo but in London, at what is described as “a prominent mosque which also runs one of the country’s largest sharia courts” – in other words, a religious institution that already enjoys the imprimatur of state approval, albeit not (yet) to the same degree as in Pakistan. The imam, Dr Hasan, has issued a groveling apology – “I seek Allah’s forgiveness for my mistakes” – but they still want to kill him.
(The “fundamentalists”* are fellow Muslims.)
Dr Hasan is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. I wonder if those many western intellectuals eager to heap Himalayas of derision on those (largely apocryphal) American school districts that require creationism to be taught alongside evolution will be equally gung-ho about hooting and jeering at men who are willing to kill for the mildest suggestion that Islam and evolution are not entirely incompatible.
Would PZ Myers like to try desecrating the Koran, as he did a Catholic host (communion wafer)?
Mmm. That’s what I thought. “Transgressive” is fun when no one hits back. The Catholic Church didn’t, nor will David Brooks.
Steyn pretty much captures characters like PZ here:
When the west’s bestselling atheists, stand-up comics, transgressive artists and all the rest belittle Christianity but steer clear of Islam, they’re not just engaging in prudent self-protection. They’re objectively advancing the cause of Islamic imperialism – because their selective mockery acts in support of the bullies’ core belief, that Islam is different and must be accorded a special deference
Well, the beauty for Darwinists, cowering before Islam, is that Darwin was always conceded to be a mortal god. It was a good party while it lasted. He is not waiting to greet them on the other side, despite their cloying piety.
When they cower and sell out, they are not grieving him. He no longer exists, except as an obsession in their own minds, and who would take serious risks for that?