I am an Islamophobe. I certainly hope this admission has come as a surprise, but I'm trying to make a point here (especially to those of you who aren't surprised). Islamophobia is defined as the fear or hatred of Islam or Muslims. I hate Islam, just like I hate all religions and therefore I fit the definition of an Islamophobe No doubt many of you have heard this word before and some of you might have even used this word to describe someone. Well right now I'm asking you to stop doing that. Not because my feelings are hurt by this word or because I'm afraid of the label. I'm asking because Islamophobia is a sloppily defined word that has become a way of stifling criticism towards that which must be criticised. This is why we must eliminate this word from our vocabularies.
Islamophobia is defined as the fear or hatred of Islam or Muslims. The biggest problem with this definition is how it conflates fear or hatred of Islam with fear or hatred of Muslims. Islam is an ideology while Muslims are people. As an ideology Islam must be open to criticism, ridicule and even hatred. Whether people want to admit it or not, Islam is an ideology which treats women as second class citizens, permits the institution of slavery, and calls for the death of blasphemers. This is why I hate Islam and why all rational thinking people should too. The same however does not go for Muslims. Muslims like Maajid Nawaz do not subscribe to such ideas and call for a reformation of Islam. For this reason hating all Muslims is irrational and cannot be defended.
Another problem with the definition of Islamophobia is how it conflates hatred and fear. While hatred and fear can be related, it is important to distinguish between the two. Fear requires a perception of danger and is therefore always felt in response to something else. I myself and scared of heights, but right now I do not feel that fear. If you take me to the roof of a building and ask me to look down, then I'll start wishing I had worn the brown pants. Hatred on the other hand needs only that the object of hate be what it is and is therefore a constant. This is why I feel hatred towards Islam no matter where I am. If the purpose of the term "Islamophobia" is to combat bigotry, then it does itself no favours in demonising those who feel fear and lumping them in with those who hate.
Moving away from the definition of the word, we have the problem of the word itself. There is no equivalent word for any other ideology. There's no Christianophobia, Conservophobia, Liberalphobia, or Fill-in-the-blank-phobia. Islam has received special protection by society that it does not deserve. Every idea must be placed under scrutiny because that is how we figure out which ideas are good and which ones are bad. Good ideas do not need to be protected from criticism because they stand up to criticism. Bad ideas only survive when they are protected, but why do we protect them? Well I'm ashamed to say the answer lies with the political left.
I'm a leftist. I'm actually very proud of that, but sometimes my fellow leftists make that hard for me. My biggest problem with the left is how far they will go to protect people's feelings. That's where this comes from. In the western world Muslims are a minority so the left bends over backwards to protect them from anything that makes them feel unwelcome. When this takes the form of opposing hate speech targeted at Muslims from actual bigots, this is actually a very laudable thing (unless it takes the form of rioting at which point it becomes another embarrassment). However the left also stifles criticism of Islam in the name of protecting feelings. The Southern Poverty Law Center even went as far as to label Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an ex-Muslim critic of Islam, and the aforementioned Maajid Nawaz, a liberal Muslim reformer, as Anti-Muslim extremists. UC Berkeley (the home of the Free Speech Movement) recently canceled a speech by Richard Dawkins also because of his views on Islam. All the left needs is one word: Islamophobia. It gets worse though, because while the left silences critics of bad ideas, they give platforms to those who espouse them. Most notable among these is Linda Sarsour, co-chair of the 2017 Women's March. Sarsour is an advocate of Sharia Law saying that the system is "reasonable". The same system that would have me killed as a blasphemer is deemed reasonable by a champion of the Left.
I hate an ideology that allows people to own slaves, that demeans women and would have me killed. That makes me an Islamophobe. This word is a tool to silence criticism of an ideology that needs to be criticised. We don't give any other ideology this level of protection because we understand the need for the scrutiny of ideologies. So please, let's get rid of this fucking word.
No comments:
Post a Comment