So evil it's like they're a different species

David French at NRO compels us to squarely face the degree of evil that menaces us:

The civilized world is confronting a movement that defines “victory” as the slaughter of unarmed cartoonists at work at their desks.

Even worse, that movement knows that its barbarism — the very conduct that revolts us — is perhaps the jihadists’ most effective recruiting tool. Jihadist snuff films are rampant in the Middle East, featuring up-close photos and videos of beheadings, videos of car bombings and suicide bombings set to music, and graphic videos of dead bodies — with the camera panning slowly over the corpses. These videos are passed around on cell phones, reproduced on CDs, uploaded to the Internet, and spread as far and wide as possible. 

Why? Because the enemy knows that while these videos certainly revolt many Muslims, they inspire others, and they intimidate entire nations. I fear that Americans — that Westerners in general — still don’t understand the enemy we face. And, even worse, we still don’t understand the cultural challenge of confronting a movement that inspires millions with the exact kind of images and messaging that repulse decent people everywhere. 

It really is hard to fathom what their idea of a "holy" society looks like.  It's impossible to construct.  When you rape and slaughter all the women, the babies stop happening and your population goes backwards. Compounding the problem is the fact that beheadings and mass shootings of men continue.

They truly inhabit some other universe.  It's imperative upon us, however, as French says, to understand , because their goal is to impose that universe on us.