Islamophobia againLet’s be clear: Muslims are neither good nor bad. We’re just human
Here we go again… There is no such thing as Islamophobia. It is an artificial construct designed specifically to silence dissenting voices. It does not exist and a dislike of Islam – even an extreme one – is based on the evidence Islam presents us. And, that dislike is not racism because a religious belief and a totalitarian ideology is not a race.
The main difficulty is that Islamophobia is so poorly understood. Instead of focusing on the harm experienced by British Muslims, Islamophobia is commonly dismissed by arguing that you can’t be racist against a set of ideas.
Ah, the old don’t understand fuckwittery. You cannot be racist against a set of ideas. Islam is a medieval ideology that is rooted in the principle of conquest. It is an ideology that governs the lives of its followers to such an extent that they ask advice from imams on the kind of everyday stuff that the rest of us take for granted. This is an ideology that treats those women that Farah Elahi is so concerned about as second class citizens. It is not a phobia to express disgust at such an ideology.
But that is quite distinct from the characterisation of Muslims that denies people the opportunity to self-determine their own identities. It contradicts the very premise of the right to freedom from discrimination – that people should be judged on their individual attributes rather than based on the category to which they are perceived to belong.
While Muslims set themselves apart from the rest of society, while they seek to create enclaves to the point where they are no go zones for non-Muslims, then this will continue. Who created this situation? Not us.
A phobia is an extreme dislike or fear that manifests itself physically in the patient. A strong abhorrence of a totalitarian belief system is not a phobia. A dislike of the ideology does not mean that we do not accept individual followers and treat them as individuals and it is highly disingenuous to suggest that it is. But, then, Elahi is writing in the Guardian, so disingenuous hogwash is what we can expect.
I repeat; there is no such thing as Islamophobia.
Farah Elahi is a research and policy analyst for Runnymede, an independent race equality thinktank
That says all we need to know about this twat.
I am completely of the opinion that there has been an outbreak of rabies at The Guardian this year.
Not sure if they caught it from the BBC or the other way round.
If someone identifies as a Nazi, I assume they are a bad person because of Hitler’s ideology and actions, ditto Muslim because of Mohammed’s ideology and actions.
I wonder why we never find ourselves discussing Sikh phobia or Hindu phobia?
That is an excellent question. I will pose it to the next person to use that term. Just to watch the panic as their frontal lobes try to start working.
@LR
FTFY – dislike is not phobia
An extreme fear of RoPs is not an irrational fear, it is perfectly rational to fear they will cause one potentially fatal harm.
Islamotimor is the correct description.