arabnews.com
It is customary during the annual Hajj pilgrimage that Muslim devouts throw pebbles at three walls (formerly pillars), called jamarāt, in the city of Mina just east of Mecca. One of a series of ritual acts that must be performed in the Hajj, it is a symbolic re-enactment of Abraham’s hajj, where he stoned three pillars representing the temptation to disobey God and preserve Ishmael. The ceremony is commonly known as “the stoning of the Devil,” and may be regarded as a practice designed to reinforce socio-religious conformity and obedience.
I’ve been reminded of this practice by the constant re-appearance in our own society of a primitive, ritualistic “stoning of the Devil” — the now mandatory condemnation of David Duke by aspiring politicians on the Right. A society, of course, reveals much about itself by its choice of devils. In this case, the “devil” is not necessarily the person of David Duke, but rather his career, and the struggle for White interests, heritage, and ultimately survival that this career has entailed. In terms of our visible political landscape, Duke has come to represent the personification of the “folk devil” of White identity. ...
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