Islamophobia is a problem in the United States, and is not justified.

My opponent has defined Islamophobia as being "hatred or fear of Muslims or of their politics or culture". He goes on to say that "it is not justified". This makes perfect sense as a definition of the topic, as a phobia is not just being afraid of something, it is an "irrational fear". I am not denying that there is a certain level of fear of Islam in the United States - my issue with this proposition is whether or not such fear is irrational - in my view, it is quite justified. Let me state at the outset that in my view hatred of anyone based on their religion is something that is best avoided. Also, whilst Islam as a religion, political system and culture is something towards which people should have a healthy fear, this should not equate to hysteria, nor hatred towards individual muslims. Why is fear of Islam justifiable? Here's just a couple of reasons: It is a violent religion which is extremely and dangerously intolerant of other religions; It is misogynistic, treating women as property and inferior beings. If violence, misogyny and intolerance are desirable traits for modern American society, then there is no problem. If they are not, then it pays to be cautious in terms of what inroads this religion is permitted to make into society. We often hear Western "experts" and leaders telling us that Islam is a religion of peace, which is besmirched from time to time by extremists. This is just not true. Islam and violence: The Quran is full of exhortations to gruesome violence against unbelievers, and promises to the faithful of the rewards they will receive if they become martyrs for the cause of Islam. Even speaking out against Islamic teaching or practice is likely to make one, as in the case of Salman Rushdie, the subject of a fatwa ordering their death. In the case of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch movie producer who made a film about the plight of women under Islam, it actually did lead to his murder by a muslim in 2004.[1] Islam and misogyny: I will just quote a couple of paragraphs from someone who grew up as a muslim woman in a number of African muslim countries, as well as Saudi Arabia, and experienced first hand the horrors of genital mutilation and subjugation which are the lot of muslim women: "What matters is abuse, and how it is anchored in a religion that denies women their rights as humans. What matters is that atrocities against women and children are carried out in Europe. What matters is that governments and societies must stop hiding behind a hollow pretense of tolerance so that they can recognize and deal with the problem." [2] "In reality, these Westerners are the ones who misunderstand Islam. The Quaran mandates these punishments. It gives a legitimate basis for abuse, so that the perpetrators feel no shame and are not hounded by their conscience of their community."[3] Should the US fear a religion which mandates these abuses making inroads into their society? I believe it should. I'd now like to address each of the examples of "Islamophobia" cited by Pro in his argument: 1) Miss America, 2014 I totally agree that the discrimination evidenced here by the social media" commentators" is wrong. However, we are given six examples, out of how many comments? Perhaps a few hundred? (I'm just guessing here, we are not told). Out of 300 million citizens. That is not a representative sample of the opinions of average Americans. And the sample is biased - by and large we would expect mostly people upset with the result to be the ones commenting. Then, of course, there is the fact that she actually did win the pageant. 2) US Representatives Keith Ellison and Andre Carson It would appear that Ellison has faced certain accusations from his Republican opponents - but perhaps this is not unexpected. What I find more interesting is that he won party endorsement over 9 other (non-muslim) candidates, and then was elected by the people with 56% of the vote.[3] That doesn't scream out "Islamophobia" to me. As far as Carson goes, again we are hearing about claims about a politician by his opponents. That is not unexpected - all sorts of libellious claims are made about politicians of all persuasions by their opponents. 3) Barrack Hussein Obama II Yes, there are a small number of conspiracy theorists who believe there is an Islamic plot, headed by the highest office in the land, to turn the USA into a muslim nation. A lot of these same people believe the government is building "concentration camps" in the desert, and stockpiling thousands of coffins in which to bury the bodies of dissidents. Whilst these people make a lot of noise, I seriously doubt that they are large in number. And finally, to the subject of why fear of Islam is "not justifiable", according to my opponent: "1) The majority of terrorist activities in the United States are committed by Hispanics, not Muslims." The statistics quoted here are extremely misleading. As is pointed out in the article to which Pro refers - "In 2012, all but one of the nine Muslim-American terrorism plots uncovered were halted in early stages. That one, an attempted bombing of a Social Security office in Arizona, caused no casualties." In other words, due to increased vigilance, eight out of nine attempts were thwarted, and one failed due to incompetence. It is not as if the intention to kill and maim in the name of Islam wasn't there - just that it was unsuccessful. How many may have died if any of these attacks had succeeded? "2) More Muslims are killed by Islamic extremists each year than non-Muslims." The obvious response is "so what"? How does that justify any number of non-muslim victims (or muslim ones for that matter)? "3) Many Muslims, along with non-Muslims, died in the September 11th terrorist attacks." Firstly, I would not call 31 out of around 3000 victims (i.e. approximately 1%) "many". And the point is, those 31 muslim victims were the victims of muslims. The fact that Islamic fundamentalists are willing to murder more moderate adherents of their own religion for the "greater good" of annihilating thousands of "infidels" proves nothing, other than what a savage ideology they follow. Non-muslim countries are well advised, in my opinion, to fear a religion that in just over a decade has been responsible for the death of 3,000 innocents in one terrorist attack (World Trade Centre), over 200 on another occasion (Bali bombings) and numerous other attacks on Western civilization that have either been thwarted, or resulted in less casualties. And it will be a sad day when a misguided sense of "political correctness" brings about a loss of vigilance that keeps the next 9/11 or Bali bombing from happening. References: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] Aayan Hirsi Ali, Infidel. [3] Aayan Hirsi Ali, Infidel.