Mick Hartley

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Islamophobia

Over at Harry's Place comes news that Ken Livingstone has branded journalist Martin Bright ‘a bit of an Islamophobe’. Bright mounts a robust defence:

For the record I am an Islamophile, not an Islamophobe.

Well…it's one way of responding. I suppose, though I'll admit it wouldn't be mine. Isn't it, rather, time to call an end to the whole concept of Islamophobia?

A fundamental principle of Western thought is the separation between a person and their beliefs. This is not a fundamental principle of Islamic thought. Quite the contrary: born a Muslim, you die a Muslim. The notion that you might change your mind is so alien that the punishment for apostasy – in theory, if not necessarily in practice – is death.

The charge of Islamophobia deliberately obscures that separation between a person and their beliefs. It accepts the Islamic vision of an immutable union of person and religion. We should refuse to accept those terms. A person's ethnic origins may be Pakistani, Arab, Kurd, European, whatever, and to criticise or abuse them for that is racist and unacceptable. Their beliefs, whether in Islam, Scientology, UFOs, or any other ideology, creed or cult, is an entirely different matter, and should be open to criticism, debate, scepticism, up to and including ridicule. That's the way we do it, and that's what we should be defending. Worship who or what you want, wear what you want, think what you want, but don't expect to be spared from being offended by the opinions and beliefs of others. The charge of Islamophobia is, precisely, an attempt to make criticism of Islam illegitimate – and that attempt should be resisted. We should be free to criticise Islam just as we criticise Christianity, socialism, capitalism, or any other system of beliefs.

The fact that the most well-known Islamic apostate, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is under constant police protection, that Ibn Warraq, author of "Why I am Not a Muslim", has to write under a pseudonym, and that cartoons of Mohammed still attract death threats and Facebook bans, suggests how far we still have to go. The aim should be, at least for those Muslims resident in the West, that they feel as free to abandon the faith of their parents (or not to, of course) as Christians, atheists, and all the rest of us are free now to make our own choices. As long as Islamophobia is accepted as a legitimate term of criticism, we won't start making any progress.

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3 responses to “Islamophobia”

  1. Dom Avatar
    Dom

    From Martin Bright’s article: “He [Livingstone] is also an influential public figure who should not throw around such unfounded and potentially dangerous charges.”
    If the charge is “dangerous” — and it is — then he really shouldn’t call himself an “Islamophile”.
    It is dangerous to criticize Scientology — that’s one reason why I am not a Scientologist. (The other reason is that it is silly).

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  2. Sadie Avatar
    Sadie

    Ken Livingstone branding anyone is ludicrous. The twit has been wearing the mark of Cain for ages.

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  3. hewyxx Avatar
    hewyxx

    The Muslims are the modern world’s devil’s agents – a destructive force in a world which has great hope. They don’t do sense, reason, faith, hope or charity or even, kindness, human understanding, social justice, or even sympathy, equanimity, and certainly not generosity or caring or concern for the rights of others and certainly not forbearance and ‘tolerance’ (big in our modern western world) or acceptance, and absolutely not altruism, magnanimity and philanthropy. Whining about ‘injustice’ ( gee ,wow , rich coming from them) towards their supposed ‘cause’ and western Islamaphobic bigots. How rich is that, coming from them? Yes, they ( the relatively sizable minority of psychopathic males in their ranks that is), are good at that. The Jihadists really believe in what they’re fighting for. Rule by brute force, ignorance and state thuggery. They don’t believe they will go to ‘Jannah’ when they win. They don’t really believe in ‘Jannay’ i.e paradise, the great garden in the sky. They don’t have souls. They delude themselves that they can win their jihads and become legitimate criminals free to kill, brutalise, pillage, rape and then go home to batter their wives. And, in a way, that could be good for us in the west. Leave them to it. What’s it to us?
    Well, there is 9’11 (2995 dead, officially, but it was more) Madrid 3/11 ( 191 dead, officially) and London 7/7 ( 52 dead, officially) And, of course, a multiple of each of these numbers maimed to the point of having their lives taken away. And, of course, there are the aborted attempts!
    That’s 3238 officially dead. They didn’t volunteer. They’re innocent human
    beings. They’re victims, not martyrs.
    There is a moral imperative to right these wrongs.
    The American and British soldiers dying in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan are
    noble and worthy servants of the cause of freedom and justice, hopefully leading to a
    democratic system of government and liberation for the long suffering victims of
    Islamic tyranny and brutality. They are no ‘martyrs’ trying to go to ‘Jannah’. They are
    victims – innocent human beings, adding to the number stated above.
    Jesus is the greatest martyr that ever lived. He genuinely sacrificed His life for what
    He believed. And He was not the son of God, He never turned water into wine and He
    never raised anybody from the dead and He never resurrected, in the literal sense. He
    never invented Christianity either. He is not to blame for Christianity.
    Mohammed, by contrast, was a warrior dedicated to war and killing and rule by
    tyranny. He never sacrificed anything. He had an innumerable amount of wives and
    a merry time when not on duty. This is testified to by his prodigious offspring.
    Shahid? Lead by example. What happened? Archangel Gabriel? Never existed. Allah?
    About as real as Santa Claus, Mickey Mouse and America’s latterday most famous
    family from Springfield, somewhere in the U.S.A. Mohammed is entirely to blame for
    slam. to- day.
    Let’s ‘cut to the chase’ so to speak, and cut the crap and get real. Let’s ignore the
    apologists like the famous convert Brit. called Yusuf Islam, who’s changed his name
    twice, telling us that Islam means peace ( i-salaam. Get it?). Dead innocent people
    tells us all we need to know about Islam. 3238 + and as much again and more. They are victims whose valuable lives have been taken away (and it continues).

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