Abstract

Girard’s comments on Islam-related topics are few and were mainly published after the attacks of 11 September 2001, that is, at a rather late phase of Girard’s work. In addition, most of them were published in the context of interviews in which Girard focused more on contemporary Islamist radicalism than about Islam in its entirety. This chapter discusses Girard’s scattered comments from different angles: his methodological approach to Islam-related phenomena, his distinction between Islam and Islamist radicalism, and the latter’s function in the planetary “escalation to extremes” of mimetic rivalry. After a discussion of several blind spots in Girard’s approach toward Islam, the chapter finally outlines a possible “mimetic history of the Muslim world” as part of Girard’s unaccomplished project to write a “mimetic history” of our time.