Islamophobia

{{Bronze}}[[File:IVČRN 14-03-2015 2.JPG|thumb|right|225px|''Islám v České republice nechceme'' (We don't want Islam in the [[Czech Republic]]) protest in 2015.]]
{{Islamophobia}}
{{cquote|Islam’s tenets are frequently distorted and taken out of context, with particular acts or practices being taken to represent or to symbolize a rich and complex faith. Some claim that Islam is incompatible with democracy, or irrevocably hostile to modernity and the rights of women. And in too many circles, disparaging remarks about Muslims are allowed to pass without censure, with the result that prejudice acquires a veneer of acceptability.|||{{wpl|Kofi Annan}}<ref>[https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2004-12-07/address-the-dpi-seminar-confronting-islamophobia-education-for-tolerance-and-understanding Address to the DPI seminar, "Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding"] by Kofi Annan (07 December 2004) ''United Nations''.</ref>}}
'''Islamophobia''' is a term used to refer to discrimination or prejudice against the religion of [[Islam]] and the Muslim people (the people who believe in [[Islam]]), especially as a political force.<ref>Oxford English Dictionary.</ref> Nearly all Islamophobes are also [[xenophobia|xenophobes]], who have a generalised dislike of foreigners. Sometimes, however, the term "Islamophobia" is used as a [[snarl word]] to dismiss ''valid'' criticisms of Islamic beliefs, doctrines, and ideologies.<ref>https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/is-islamophobia-real-maher-harris-aslan/381411/</ref>

According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the first known use of the term occurred in the 1920s,<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20161111060707/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/islamophobia</ref> though it has come into more frequent use since the 1997 publication of ''Islamophobia: A Challenge For Us All'' by the Runnymede Trust,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150409041036/http://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/17/32.html Runnymede Trust - Publications - Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All (Wayback Machine copy)]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110930011045/https://www.divshare.com/download/9605806-94b Official digital copy of the publication without the cartoons]</ref> and even more so to describe the backlash against Muslims following the [[9/11]] [[terrorist]] attacks.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4102389.stm BBC NEWS | UK | 'Rise' in Muslim discrimination]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080306115331/http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=127fe2880e48951b564ac2f3e171242e Big Jump in Hate Crimes Against Muslims Documented - NAM (Wayback Machine copy)]</ref>

==Racism==
On the outside, one can distinguish Islamophobia and [[racism]] — Islam is a religion, not a race, and is commonly practiced among many ethnicities.<ref group=note>[[Malcolm X]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120324231109/http://islam.uga.edu/malcomx.html abandoned anti-white racism after experiencing the ethnic diversity of the Hajj].</ref> However, racism may ''fuel'' Islamophobia, as the narrow Western perception of Islam often associates the religion almost exclusively with the Arab ethnicity and with [[Middle Eastern]] culture ("brown people in turbans").<ref>[http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2015/01/13/father-and-son-turned-away-from-muslim-free-hot-springs-gun-range-for-being-brown Father and son turned away from "Muslim-free" Hot Springs gun range for being brown] — Arkansas Times</ref> Islam is a collection of ideas and beliefs, and, like all religions, should be criticized by rational people. When dislike of Islam takes the form of mindless irrational hatred based on cultural stereotypes, however, it becomes Islamophobia and has many ''parallels'' with racism. For instance, Islamophobes often target [[Sikhism|Sikhs]] because Sikhs resemble common notions of what Muslims "look like", despite the tension that has existed for many years between Sikhs and Muslims,<ref>"[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/aug/08/sikhs-targeted-anti-muslim-extremists Why are Sikhs targeted by anti-Muslim extremists?]," Emine Saner, ''The Guardian,'' 8 August 2012 - "Is there a danger that in trying to differentiate themselves from Muslims – and there have been historical tensions between some Sikhs and Muslims – Sikhs are themselves contributing to Islamophobia?"</ref> and despite [[Sikhism]] and Islam being separate religions. It's additionally worth noting that the modern concept of racism has its origins closely tied to religious discrimination, with the Spanish concept of {{wpl|limpieza de sangre||,}} or "purity of blood", originally only applying to Jews and Muslims but later, with the Spanish colonization of the Americas, also applying to black and indigenous people.

Some who protest that they cannot be racist because they are only ranting and obsessing about a religion do so too loudly: "[[Bill Clinton|I did not have racist relations with that religion]]", as Nesrine Malik puts it.

{{cquote|Racism is behaviour, not an informed academic position. I doubt that anyone abusing Muslims in the street, or defacing a mosque, or snatching a veil off a woman's face, has paused to examine their premise beforehand. The argument that Islam is not a race is a cop out. It's time that we dispensed with it once and for all, because it prevents us from identifying acts motivated by hatred for what they really are. Islam might not be a race, but using that as a fig leaf for your unthinking prejudice is almost certainly racist.|||Nesrine Malik, writer and commentator for ''[[The Guardian]]''<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/20/islam-race-richard-dawkins Message to Richard Dawkins: 'Islam is not a race' is a cop out | Nesrine Malik | Comment is free | The Guardian]</ref>}}

In 2016, the European Islamophobia Report (EIR) presented the "European Islamophobia Report 2015"<ref>www.islamophobiaeurope.com/reports/2015/en/EIR_2015.pdf</ref> at the European Parliament. That report analyzed the "trends in the spread of Islamophobia" in 25 European states in 2015.<ref>http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/europes-first-report-islamophobia-shows-dangerous-climate-muslims-live</ref> The EIR defines Islamophobia as anti-Muslim racism. While not every criticism of Muslims or Islam is necessarily Islamophobic, anti-Muslim sentiments expressed through the dominant group scapegoating and excluding Muslims for the sake of power is.{{cn}}

With the rise of [[Donald Trump]], the importance of calling out Islamophobia is becoming even more important. Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi-born activist who works with the American Friends Service Committee, says:<ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/22/we_have_crossed_a_new_threshold "We Have Crossed a New Threshold": Iraqi American Decries Trump's Open Islamophobia]</ref>

{{cquote|...many Muslim Americans, including myself, have been hearing these sentiments in the last few years, but now these concepts and ideas and hatred against Muslims is becoming way more mainstream than it used to be in the past. And the fact that Donald Trump can stand out there and bash Muslims and call for banning Muslims from coming from the country indicates a new—that we’ve crossed a new threshold with Islamophobia. I don’t think it's Islamophobia anymore. It's not fear of Muslims. It's actively hating Muslims. It's actively trying to keep them outside of the country or actively trying to discriminate against them when they are inside the U.S.}}

==Characteristics of Islamophobia==
[[File:Bomb Mecca Kookmobile.jpeg|thumb|right|375px|A "[[Nuke Mecca|Bomb Mecca]]"-themed [[kookmobile]].]]
In 1996, the Runnymede Trust established the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, chaired by Gordon Conway, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex. The Commission's report, ''Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All'', was published in November 1997 by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw. In the Runnymede report, Islamophobia was defined in general as "an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination." This is not the common English meaning of "Islamophobia"<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20161111060707/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/islamophobia</ref> in Britain which is, "dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force."

In detail, The Runnymede Trust defines Islamophobia as having the following characteristics:

#Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.
#Islamic culture is seen as separate and "[[other]]." It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them.
#Islamic ideology is seen as inferior to the [[West]]. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive, and [[sexist]].
#Muslims are seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism, and [[Islamofascism|engaged in a Clash of Civilizations]].
#Islam is seen as a [[Islamism|political ideology]], used for political or military advantage.
#Criticisms made of the West by Islam are rejected out of hand.
#Hostility towards Islam is used to justify [[Discrimination|discriminatory]] practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society.
#Anti-Muslim bigotry is seen as natural and normal.

The largest project monitoring Islamophobia was undertaken following 9/11 by the EU watchdog, European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). Their May 2002 report "Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001", written by Chris Allen and Jorgen S. Nielsen of the University of Birmingham, was based on 75 reports — 15 from each EU member nation.<ref>http://www.eumc.europa.eu/eumc/index.php?fuseaction=content.dsp_cat_content&catid=43d8bc25bc89d&contentid=4582ddc822d41</ref> The report highlighted the regularity with which ordinary Muslims became targets for abusive and sometimes violent retaliatory attacks after 9/11. Despite localized differences within each member nation, the recurrence of attacks on recognizable and visible traits of Islam and Muslims was the report's most significant finding. Incidents consisted of verbal abuse, blaming all Muslims for terrorism, forcibly removing women's hijabs, spitting on Muslims, calling children "Osama", and random assaults. A number of Muslims were hospitalized and in one instance paralyzed. The report also discussed the portrayal of Muslims in the media. Inherent negativity, stereotypical images, fantastical representations, and exaggerated caricatures were all identified. The report concluded that "a greater receptivity towards anti-Muslim and other xenophobic ideas and sentiments has, and may well continue, to become more tolerated."

The EUMC has since released a number of publications related to Islamophobia, including The Fight against Antisemitism and Islamophobia: Bringing Communities together (European Round Tables Meetings) (2003) and Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia (2006).<ref>http://www.raxen.eumc.eu.int/1/webmill.php?id=32813&ditem=3101&lin=detail</ref>

Islamaphobia can also appear in the following forms (not from Runnymede Trust):
===Islamophobia as xenophobia or nativism===
*Muslim immigrants to "Christian countries" in the West are seen as part of a much greater plot by the "Muslim world" to conquer the rest of the world, or at least the West.
*Muslim immigrants as a whole are seen as unwilling to become part of their host country's culture and society.
*Opposing such immigration for the above reasons, aka denying people the right to immigrate on account of their political views.
*Deporting them on account of the above reasons.

===[[Pseudohistory|Pseudo-historical]] Islamophobia===
*Fabricating past crimes against humanity that Muslims, in the fabrication, perpetrated against non-Muslims, as in [[Anders Behring Breivik]]'s manifesto, when he claims that there were attacks Muslim [[Albania]]ns made on Christian countries.
*Claiming that it was the Bosniaks who attempted genocide and conquest against the Serbs and Croats (it was the other way around), as Breivik also does.
*Denying or minimizing the extent of the Srebrenica massacre.
*Claims that [[Jefferson]] despised Muslims during the Barbary Wars or some other [[appeal to authority]] that isn't even true.

===Other===
*Grossly exaggerating the number of Muslims who are terrorists or who hate the West.
*Opposing religious freedom for Muslims.
*Actual attacks of violence against people for being Muslims or [[Sikhism|looking like they might be Muslims.]]
*Endorsing ethnic profiling of Muslims on grounds that they're easily prone to radicalization and/or violence.
*Justifying Islamophobia by portraying Muslim women as voiceless and victimized, something that actual Muslim women dislike.<ref>https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1012&context=islamandwomen</ref>

===Examples of Islamophobia===
*The [[Spanish Inquisition]], which had its roots in expelling Muslims and [[Antisemitism|Jews]] from Spain after the {{wpl|Reconquista||,}} and also led to discrimination against converts from those faiths and their descendants, as it was assumed that they hadn't really converted and were still secretly practicing their old religion.
*On September 15, 2001, a Sikh man (Sikhs being known for wearing distinctive beards and turbans, and also for ''not being Muslims'') was murdered at a gas station in Mesa, [[Arizona]], "in revenge for the 11 September attacks." His murderer, Frank Silva Roque, was convicted and initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole by the Arizona Supreme Court.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3154170.stm BBC NEWS | Americas | US 9/11 revenge killer convicted]</ref>
*In a February 2002 interview with the ''LA Times'', [[John Ashcroft]] stated "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for Him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends His son to die for you." Unless your name is Abraham ([[Abraham#The story|just kidding]]!) or Jephthah ([[Book of Judges#Synopsis|for realz]]<ref group=note>To be fair, God didn't order Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter and he himself didn't have his daughter in mind when he made this vow; it was just worded ''very'' poorly.</ref>).
*In November 2006, Jerry Klein, a [[Washington DC]]-area radio talk show host suggested, in [[Poe's Law|parody of Islamophobic views]], that "identifying markers ... I'm thinking either it should be an armband, a crescent moon armband, or it should be a crescent moon tattoo ... If it means that we have to round them up and do a tattoo in a place where everybody knows where to find it, then that's what we'll have to do."<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/02/25/us-usa-muslims-sidebar-idUSARM55127020070225 "In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep"], Bernd Debusmann. Reuters, Feb 25, 2007</ref> Although some callers believed that Klein was "off his rocker" for suggesting such a thing, other callers believed Klein had ''not gone far enough'', and suggested that Muslims should be placed in [[concentration camp]]s, or deported en-masse. Klein exposed the parody at the close of his show, and chastised those who had called in to support what amounted to, in essence, a new [[Holocaust]] against Muslims. And then, in 2015, it became a part of the platform of one of the biggest Republican candidates, [[Donald Trump]].
*When a [[Islam|Muslim]] named Keith Ellison was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, his ''patriotism'' was questioned based on his ''religion''. There were even calls for legislation to force him to be sworn into office on a Bible,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061129023246/http://townhall.com/Columnists/DennisPrager/2006/11/28/america,_not_keith_ellison,_decides_what_book_a_congressman_takes_his_oath_on America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on - Dennis Prager]</ref> despite the fact ''no congressperson takes the actual oath on any book''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061206062825/https://www.adl.org/PresRele/DiRaB_41/4934_41.htm Anti-Defamation League]</ref> Like most Congress members, he later had a private ceremony where he reiterated the oath on a religious text, and took it on a copy of the [[Koran]] owned by [[Thomas Jefferson]].
*The 2010 [[Halal soup controversy]] erupted when Campbell's introduced a line of canned soups that met with Halal dietary restrictions. The hysteria went as far as "Your kids might be eating halal food without you even realizing it!" As though eating something that passes the halal restrictions would turn you into a Muslim?<ref group=note>Note also that ''any'' vegetarian non-alcoholic product is halal by definition, as all halal rules apply only to meat and alcohol.</ref>
*After the [[2013 Boston bombings]] in Boston, Massachusetts, frequent [[Fox News]] talking head Erik Rush tweeted that Muslims are evil and that the obvious thing to do was [[genocide|kill them all]]. This was sent out despite the fact that no group — Islamist or otherwise — had taken responsibility for the bombings at the time.<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/erik-rush-kill-all-muslims-response-boston-marathon-attack Erik Rush: Kill All Muslims in Response to Boston Marathon Attack], Right Wing Watch</ref>
*In 2012, 2013, and 2014, extremist Buddhists in Burma killed Muslims for being Muslims by the tens and hundreds, and displacing Muslims by the tens of thousands. Some of the violence is connected to the [[969 Movement]].
*In August of 2015 Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller posted a graphic on Facebook calling for nuclear bombs to be dropped on Muslim countries.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/sid-miller-texas-official-facebook-post-muslims-121490.html Texas official shared Facebook post calling for nuking Muslims - Eliza Collins - POLITICO]</ref>
*By 2014, the UN found that 60 million people were displaced and seeking refugee status, or otherwise fleeing, with the Syrian civil war being the largest driver.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/new-un-report-says-worlds-refugee-crisis-is-worse-than-anyone-expected/2015/06/17/a49c3fc0-14ff-11e5-8457-4b431bf7ed4c_story.html New U.N. report says world’s refugee crisis is worse than anyone expected] - Washington Post</ref> Refugees, many or most of them Muslims, are being refused asylum in other countries at a level unprecedented since Jews were turned away during WWII. A large part of the reason is the anti-Muslim animus pervasive in Europe.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/02/europes-current-anti-migrant-rhetoric-carries-echoes-of-1930s-anti-semitism/?postshare=7291441200927964 Europe’s fear of Muslim refugees echoes rhetoric of 1930s anti-Semitism]</ref>
*[[Obama]] is frequently accused of being a Muslim, as if that would somehow make him less fit to be President.
*"Islam is [[Satanic ritual abuse|a Satanic cult of murder]], not a 'religion,'" tweeted the Travis County, Texas GOP on September 21, 2015. The tweet was deleted after media attention.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150924192422/https://www.kvue.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/23/travis-county-gop-tweet-islam-satanic-cult-murder-not-religion/72676340/ Travis County GOP tweet: "Islam is a Satanic Cult of Murder Not a 'Religion'"]</ref>
*An Indiana University student was arrested for allegedly slamming a Muslim woman's head into a cafe table and trying to rip off her headscarf while shouting "white power" and "kill them all."<ref>[http://cbs4indy.com/2015/10/18/police-indiana-university-student-attacked-muslim-woman-bit-officer/ FBI opens up hate crimes investigation in case of Indiana University student who attacked Muslim woman]</ref>
*An angry Minnesota woman smashed a beer mug across the face of a Minnesota Muslim woman who was wearing a hijab and speaking Swahili in an Applebee’s restaurant.<ref>[http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/minnesota-woman-smashes-muslim-in-face-with-beer-mug-for-speaking-swahili-at-applebees/ Minnesota woman smashes Muslim in face with beer mug for speaking Swahili at Applebee’s]</ref>
*In November of 2015 in the wake of the [[DAESH]] terror attacks in Paris, the United States [[Congress]] passed a bill to limit the ability of [[Syria]]n war refugees to be sheltered in the US,<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/19/politics/house-democrats-refugee-hearings-obama/ House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees]</ref> notwithstanding that the refugees are themselves fleeing DAESH. Additionally, 30 state governors declared that they will not accept the refugees in their states.<ref>[http://www.vox.com/2015/11/16/9746456/map-syrian-refugees-governors</ref>
*In December of 2015, hate crimes against Muslims like arson, assault, and shooting had tripled in the past month.<ref>Eric Lichtblau (December 17, 2015) [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/us/politics/crimes-against-muslim-americans-and-mosques-rise-sharply.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur "Crimes Against Muslim Americans and Mosques Rise Sharply"]</ref> A Connecticut man was arrested for shooting at a mosque after endless Facebook posts saying such reasonable things as "Kill all Muslims."<ref>http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-meriden-mosque-shooting-arrest-1219-20151218-story.html</ref>
*In 2015, a man at a town hall meeting shouted: "Every Muslim is a terrorist" at a Muslim man who was showing plans for a new mosque on land he already claimed ownership for. At least three members of the crowd cheered on the anti-Muslim man.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-C71fxC5I</ref>
*Jan Morgan, an NRA advocate who banned Muslims from her gun range, also owns a website called "JanMorganMedia". In an article, she refers to Islam as a terrorist cult that is plotting world denomination and says all Muslims want to destroy America.<ref>http://janmorganmedia.com/2014/05/proof-islam-evil-violent-intolerant-straight-koran/#kgh5ZQoBp75JkD7M.99</ref>
*Anti-Muslim website [[Citizens for a Better Helena|Bare Naked Islam]] warns against making friendships with Muslims.<ref>http://www.barenakedislam.com/2016/04/13/never-make-friends-with-a-muslim-either/</ref>
*A former Laval University/University Laval student Alexandre Bissonnette violently targeted the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City (French: Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec) in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada killing 6 people and injuring 19 more.
*Wales-born Darren Osborne drove his van into Finsbury Park Mosque in Finsbury Park, London, the United Kingdom, resulting in 1 person dead and 9 others getting injured.
*A pseudo-cleric [[Imam Tawhidi]] from Australia advocated for banning Muslim immigration, shutting down Islamic schools, and prohibiting religious books.<ref name="AMUST">[https://www.amust.com.au/2017/05/fake-sheikh-tawhidi-exposed-banned-by-facebook/ Fake Sheikh Tawhidi exposed, banned by Facebook]. ''AMUST''. Retrieved September 16, 2018.</ref>
*A 28-year old self-described "Ethno-nationalist, Eco-fascist" "Kebab removalist" "racist" Australia-born Brenton Harrison Tarrant committed two consecutive terrorist attacks at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, [[New Zealand]] [[Christchurch terrorist attacks|killing 51 people and injuring 50 more]] after self-publishing a manifesto titled ''[[The Great Replacement]]'' named after a far-right theory from France of the same name and live-streamed the shootings for 17 minutes on Facebook in what would eventually become New Zealand's deadliest terrorist attacks/shootings, the deadliest attack against Muslims in the West, the first major mass shooting of 2019, and the most severe white nationalist-supremacist/neo-Nazi shooting in a non-Christian place of worship.

The rise of and fight against ISIS around the 2016 US elections led to a dramatic increase in Islamophobia that deserves its own section. Khaled A Beydoun, an assistant professor of law, writes:

{{quotebox|While 60 percent of Republican voters support Trump's Muslim ban, this number is presumptively higher for Trump supporters. Seventy-five percent of South Carolina voters, where Trump won handily, support the ban. Support for the ban was even higher in Alabama and Arkansas at 78 percent, where Trump won by roughly 22 percent and three percent, respectively.<ref>Khaled A Beydoun, [http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/03/donald-trump-electing-islamophobia-160313104258994.html Donald Trump and electing Islamophobia]. Al Jazeera, 13 March 2016.</ref>}}

In 2015 and 2016, Islamophobic attacks against American Muslims have soared to their highest levels since the aftermath of 9/11. Hundreds of attacks such as arsons at mosques, assaults, shootings, and threats of violence have been documented. New data from researchers at California State University, San Bernardino, found that hate crimes against American Muslims were up 78 percent over the course of 2015. Attacks on those perceived as Arab rose even more sharply, proving that Islamophobia continues to have a racist character. In fact, the frequency of anti-Muslim violence, often against victims wearing traditional Muslim garb or seen as Middle Eastern, appeared to have increased immediately after some of Mr. Trump’s most incendiary comments.

{{quotebox|The increase in reports of apparent hate crimes has worried Justice Department officials.

"We saw it after 9/11, and we continue to see an uptick in allegations of hate-related incidents today following the tragic events over the past year," said Vanita Gupta, who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights division. "We see criminal threats against mosques; harassment in schools; and reports of violence targeting Muslim-Americans, Sikhs, people of Arab or South-Asian descent and people perceived to be members of these groups," Ms. Gupta said.<ref>Eric Lichtblau, [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/us/politics/hate-crimes-american-muslims-rise.html Hate Crimes Against American Muslims Most Since Post-9/11 Era]. ''The New York Times.'' 17 September 2016.</ref>}}

The Justice Department has moved to draw public attention to the problem and marshal resources to combat it as part of a broader effort against religious discrimination. A number of experts in hate crimes said they were concerned that Mr. Trump’s vitriol may have legitimized threatening or even violent conduct by a small fringe of his supporters.

==Misuse of the term==
{{cquote|This is very urgent business, ladies and gentlemen, I beseech you: resist it while you still can and before the right to complain is taken away from you, which will be the next thing. You will be told, you can’t complain – because you’re Islamophobic. The term is already being introduced into the culture, as if it’s an accusation of race hatred for example or bigotry, whereas it’s only the objection to the preachings of a very extreme and absolutist religion.|||[[Christopher Hitchens]]<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20171228041004/http://lybio.net/christopher-hitchens-resisting-islam/people/</ref>}}
Islamophobia is a controversial term for a number of reasons. Despite the implication of the term, those accused of Islamophobia are not actually afraid of Islam, but instead are highly critical of it (although an argument could be made that many Islamophobic people are irrationally afraid of Muslims bringing terrorism to their neighborhood). Despite the fact that it may not be an actual phobia, it is akin to the concept of [[homophobia]].

Controversial [[New Atheism|New Atheists]], such as [[Sam Harris]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140511110140/https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/lifting-the-veil-of-islamophobia Lifting the Veil of “Islamophobia” : A Conversation with Ayaan Hirsi Ali : Sam Harris]</ref> and [[Bill Maher]]<ref>[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/05/10/maher_islamophobic_is_a_word_created_by_fascists_and_used_by_cowards_to_manipulate_morons.html Maher: "Islamophobic Is A Word Created By Fascists, And Used By Cowards, To Manipulate Morons" | Video | RealClearPolitics]</ref> have endorsed Andrew Cummins' description of Islamophobia as “a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”,<ref>[http://archive.ph/SoQpd Vodkaninja on Twitter: "Islamophobia. A word created by fascists, & used by cowards, to manipulate morons. @RichardDawkins @SamHarrisOrg http://t.co/zMuyPvC9lX"]</ref> which Harris and Maher misattributed to Hitchens.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140515002437/http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/05/12/christopher-hitchens-never-said-that-memorable-line-about-islamophobia/]</ref>

About Islamophobia, Harris writes:
{{cquote
|1=Needless to say, there are people who hate Arabs, Somalis, and other immigrants from predominantly Muslim societies for racist reasons. But if you can’t distinguish that sort of blind bigotry from a hatred and concern for dangerous, divisive, and irrational <i>ideas</i>—like a belief in martyrdom, or a notion of male “honor” that entails the virtual enslavement of women and girls—you are doing real harm to our public conversation. Everything I have ever said about Islam refers to the content and consequences of its <i>doctrine</i>. And, again, I have always emphasized that its primary victims are innocent Muslims—especially women and girls. 
There is no such thing as “Islamophobia.” This is a term of propaganda designed to protect Islam from the forces of secularism by conflating all criticism of it with racism and xenophobia. And it is doing its job, because people like you have been taken in by it.
|4=[[Sam Harris]], in a letter to [[Glenn Greenwald]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130405202153/https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/dear-fellow-liberal2 Dear Fellow Liberal - An Exchange with Glenn Greenwald]</ref>}}

{{wpl|Charb|Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier|,}} one of the cartoonists murdered by [[DAESH|jihadists]] in the [[Charlie Hebdo]] terror attacks, attacked the concept of Islamophobia in a posthumously published article. According to Charb, most right-wing Islamophobes are actually just racists. By calling their racism Islamophobia, these people get an intellectual veneer they don't deserve. "If one day all Muslims in France converted to Catholicism ... these foreigners or French of foreign origin would still be seen as responsible for all ills."<ref>[http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/04/16/400155340/in-posthumous-riposte-editor-of-charlie-hebdo-targets-islamophobia In Posthumous Riposte, Editor Of 'Charlie Hebdo' Targets 'Islamophobia' : The Two-Way : NPR]</ref>

Stephen Schwartz, an American writer and critic of [[Wahhabism]], has stated that although the charge of Islamophobia is sometimes leveled too quickly against an opponent, that it is still a real phenomenon,<ref>[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17874 FrontPage Magazine - The "Islamophobes" That Aren't]</ref> which he defines as:

#Attacking the entire religion of Islam as a problem for the world;
#Condemning all of Islam and its history as [[extremist]];
#Denying the active existence, in the contemporary world, of a [[moderate]] Muslim majority;
#Insisting that Muslims accede to the demands of non-Muslims (based on ignorance and arrogance) for various theological changes in their religion;
#Treating all conflicts involving Muslims (including, for example, that in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia-Herzegovina]] two decades ago), as the fault of Muslims themselves;
#Inciting war against Islam as a whole.

At a 2009 symposium on "Islamophobia and Religious Discrimination", Robin Richardson, a former director of the Runnymede Trust and the editor of ''Islamophobia: a challenge for us all'', said that "the disadvantages of the term Islamophobia are significant". Nonetheless, he argued that the term is here to stay, and that it is important to define it precisely, instead of completely abandoning it.<ref>http://www.insted.co.uk/anti-muslim-racism.pdf</ref>

[[Hemant Mehta]] of the ''Friendly Atheist'' blog chimes in with a similar perspective on the importance of definition for the term to function:<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8-yNNGgK00M#t=150</ref>

{{cquote|"Islamophobia" has been used wrongly ''against the critics'' of the faith. Even worse, it shuts down all conversation. If you're Sam Harris, and you've been accused of being Islamophobic, saying "No, I'm not!" doesn't convince anyone. If you're the artist at [[Charlie Hebdo]] and you've been called Islamophobic, saying that you're "only ''satirizing'' religion and bad ideas" won't get you anywhere, either. That's why we need to stop using the "i" word. '''Not because it's wrong, per se, but because it has a different meaning to different people.'''}}

===Criticism of Islam vs. Islamophobia===
{{cquote|There's a difference between ''bad ideas'', and ''the people who hold'' bad ideas. And we should all be allowed to rip apart bad ideas — it doesn't mean we're attacking the person ''having'' them. People [[Poisoning the well|conflate "criticism of Islam" with "bigotry against Muslims"]]. Islam deserves to be criticized. Just like [[Christianity]] does, just like [[Scientology]] does. Religion and dogma are ''full'' of bad ideas. That doesn't mean I want Muslims treated badly, I mean — I ''[[Social justice|oppose discrimination]]'' against Muslims!|||[[Hemant Mehta]], ''The Atheist Voice''<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8-yNNGgK00M#t=105</ref>}}
In a radio discussion on public radio between Reza Aslan and Sam Harris, Harris suggested that Islam is different from many other religions at this moment in its history because of its doctrines and the results of them, and Reza Aslan accused him of being a [[bigot]] for treating Islam as a special case.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140713063224/http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2010/08/18/15848/ground-zero-mosque/ Would Park51, the "ground zero mosque" be a symbol of religious tolerance, and should that be an American goal?]</ref> New Atheists such as [[Richard Dawkins]] and Sam Harris, who are very critical of all religions, are often accused of bigotry and Islamophobia. However, Harris ''has'' defended the [[racial profiling|profiling]] of Muslims and "anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim" in security contexts,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120513131713/https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/in-defense-of-profiling In Defense of Profiling : Sam Harris]</ref> although he himself has been accused of articulating [[Sam_Harris#Let.27s_play_.22Harris_or_Malkin.3F.22|"dangerous" and "divisive" beliefs]] by religionists and their defenders. Likewise, Dawkins has a [[Richard Dawkins#Islamophobia|very long and controversial history]] when it comes to his opinions about Islamic culture. In an interview with Bill Maher, he said:

{{quotebox|
'''Dawkins:''' "Oh, that’s their culture, you have to respect it."<br>

'''Maher:''' "That’s right! That’s what they say. It’s just insane."<br>

'''Dawkins:''' "[[Regressive left|Liberal about everything else, but then this one exception]], ‘It’s their culture.’ Well, to hell with their culture."
}}

Dawkins also accused Ahmed Mohammed of being comparable to an ISIS child soldier,<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/25/richard-dawkins-links-isis-child-who-beheaded-man-and-clock-boy-ahmed-mohamed</ref> all of which lends some credence to the suggestion that their particular quest to prevent people from using the word "Islamophobia" in any context has ulterior motives.

[[PZ Myers]] has rather insightfully suggested that Dawkins' and Maher's team-up is "a combination to bring out the worst in both".<ref>http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2015/11/28/atheists-should-not-condemn-any-culture/#more-26211</ref>

In any case, while there are legitimate cases of bigotry towards Muslims,<ref group=note>Such as the ethnic profiling conducted by the NYPD, or the spiking of hate crimes against Muslim Americans in the wake of 9/11</ref> the term "Islamophobia" can be used to disparage valid criticisms of Islam and the culture that arises because of following Islam and Sharia law to its literal phrasing. [[Stephen Fry]] has seen it applied against him too reflexively on Twitter.<ref>[http://stephen-fry-me.tumblr.com/post/59775876379/am-i-an-islamophobe Stephen Fry — Am I an Islamophobe?]</ref> [[CAIR]] activist Imraan Siddiqi has founded a site — Hatehurts<ref>http://hatehurts.net/</ref> — dedicated to "tracking Islamophobia and the communities affected by it."

Noted [[Marxist]] philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]] has also come out against conflating criticism of Islam with Islamophobia, refusing to accept (quote): "prohibiting any critique of Islam as a case of ‘Islamophobia’".<ref>http://qz.com/767751/marxist-philosopher-slavoj-zizek-on-europes-refugee-crisis-the-left-is-wrong-to-pity-and-romanticize-migrants/</ref>

Muslim women are uniquely vulnerable to sexism and Islamophobia, and the subsequent denial from Islamophobes that criticism against them is sexist or Islamophobic. Muslim women are visible targets for harassment when they wear headscarves and are also often subjected to negative stereotypes and forced to respond to misconceptions that they are oppressed and silenced by their religion. The Islamophobes pretend that they are "liberating" women by advocating for bans on headscarves or "burkinis".<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/muslim-women-trump-islamophobia-ghazala-khan/496925/</ref>

Donald Trump amplified those stereotypes when he claimed that Ghazala Khan, the Muslim American mother of a slain U.S. soldier, had not been permitted to speak due to Islamic doctrines. Ghazala clarified that she did not speak because she was "in pain" over the death of her son. Muslim American women denounced Trump’s comment on social media using the hashtag #CanYouHearUsNow.<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/muslim-women-trump-islamophobia-ghazala-khan/496925/</ref>

==See also==
{{collist|2|
*[[Anti-Catholicism]]
*[[Antisemitism]]
*[[Burqa]]
*[[Creeping Sharia]]
*[[Eurabia]]
*[[Fatwa envy]]
*[[Islamophilia]]
*[[Islamophobia Watch]]
*[[Know Nothing Party]]: the anti-Catholicism of this historical movement is often compared to current anti-Muslim bigotry.
*[[Park51]]
*[[969 Movement]]
}}

==External links==
*[http://imgur.com/3DVDcYw ''A Current Affair'' producer's wet dream]
*[http://hatehurts.net/ hatehurts.net] "Tracking Islamophobia and the communities affected by it."
*[http://reason.com/archives/2011/07/18/fear-of-a-muslim-america Fear of a Muslim America], ''[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]]''
*[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-a-rizvi/the-phobia-of-being-calle_b_5215218.html The Phobia of Being Called Islamophobic] article by Ali A. Rizvi in ''[[Huffington Post]]''
*[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/qasim-rashid/the-5-facts-islamophobia-_b_5253423.html 5 Facts Islamophobia Deniers Just Don't Get] article by Qasim Rashid in ''[[Huffington Post]]'', in respond to previous ''Huffington Post'' article by Ali A. Rizvi
*[https://www.splcenter.org/20161025/field-guide-anti-muslim-extremists SPLC's Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists]
*[http://www.alternet.org/grayzoneproject/ The Grayzone Project] - AlterNet's project covering rising Islamophobia in the [[West]].

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Islam]]
[[Category:Islamophobia| ]]
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Religious discrimination]]
[[Category:Social justice]]

Categories: Islam, Islamophobia, Political terms, Racism, Religious discrimination, Social justice