A Conservative government should...replace the term 'Islamophobia' with 'Muslimophobia'

I have a problem with the term Islamophobia (definition: 'fear' or more popularly 'hatred...of Islam').

The term has been used by Islamist groups to condemn anyone who dares to criticise not necessarily Muslims - but Islam as an ideological system. Not only does this give Islamist groups a weapon to further their own agenda - it also creates victims.

There are people in the UK, some of them my friends, with a highly rational and well grounded fear of Islam. They include the 3,000+ former Muslims who have dared to change their religion - mainly to Christianity. Many of these fellow citizens of ours face huge levels of harassment, violence and even kidnappings and attempts to kill them. I have personally met former Muslims who have been subjected to horrendous beatings and even induced abroad where they have effectively been kidnapped, locked in solitary conditions in an attempt to force them to return to Islam.

This problem is compounded by all of these actions being not merely legitimated but actually required by Islamic law (sharia). All four Sunni schools of Islamic law and the Shi'a stipulate that any adult male Muslim changing their religion (the act is termed irtidad in sharia) should be executed (the Shi'a and one of the four Sunni schools permit imprisonment for women instead of the death penalty).

Currently this problem looks set to get much worse in the UK. Whilst surveys suggest that only 14-15% of the Muslim population as a whole have been radicalised, a 2007 survey found that among British Muslims aged between 16 and 24, 36% believed that Muslims who convert to another religion should be punished by death.

The politically correct use of the term Islamophobia by the government and public bodies only adds to the suffering of the victims, as it sends out the message that any criticism of Islam is offensive and should not be tolerated. In doing so, it hides this very real problem from public gaze.

Radical Islam and political correctness have two things in common. Firstly, they both work by intimidation; Secondly, both seems unable to distinguish between people and their beliefs - a common failing of Liberal-Left politics. However, as Conservatives we hold that one may entirely disagree with someone's beliefs without rejecting them as a person. I do not personally accept Islamic beliefs - I happen to be a Christian - but during the course of my adult life I have had hundreds of Muslim friends, both in this country and in Pakistan and Afghanistan where I lived for a number of years.

In Islamic law, the government has a very specific duty placed on it to protect Islam from any criticism, which is why Islamist groupos have been so keen to get the UK government to condemn Islamaophobia. All part of their agenda of seeking to 'align' British law with sharia...

However, In a free democratic state no government should be seeking to defend a belief system be it Islam or any other, (including secular humanism!), from criticism. The government should be seeking to relate to people primarily as fellow citizens rather than as members of any particular faith community. What the government does need to do is to condemn attacks on Muslims, the vast majority of whom are good, law abiding British citizens who share many of the family values that Conservatives hold dear. For that the appropriate term is not Islamophobia but Muslimophobia.

It's time to remember the victims of Islamophobia, many of whom have originally come here from countries such as Pakistan and Iran where many of the fundamentally British freedoms we cherish such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion do not exist in the same way. A Conservative government should make a priority of replacing the term Islamophobia with Muslimophobia.

Comments

[Philip]

Excellent post.

Although I hesitate a bit about Government dictating and programming us to speak what it decrees are acceptable words and language, I see the point that "Muslimophobia" is a better word than "Islamophobia" in order to discourage attacks on Muslims, rather than discouraging criticism of beliefs. Of course the use of very term “…phobia” is used to intimidate in the way Martin Parsons points to, i.e. stop criticism of a belief or opinion in order to force acceptance of it. As he says, both radical Islam and political correctness work by intimidation.

[Simon Newman]

If a Tory govt had the power to challenge PC, it ought to get rid of all such deceitful terms. A phobia is an irrational fear amounting to a mental illness, and nothing to do with hate.

[Simon Newman]

Oh, I agree that fear of Islam is entirely rational.

[Be Afraid Very Afraid]

Islam has been spread throughout the centries by war, rape (which is fine if it is a non muslim in their eyes) and mass immigration. It is not a religon of peace and tolerence, but one of violence and intelorence. The more muslims that arrive here the more evident this will become.

Just to put this into perspctive, currently all those a serving sentance in British jails for terrorism are muslim as are all who are being investigated or prosecuted. All those who where involved in the two terror attacks in July 07 and at Glasgow airport were muslim. All those under survailence for potential terror attacks by the authorities are muslim. There is absolutley nothing irrational about fear of muslims.

[myenemyphobic]

How do you tell a good muslim from a bad one?

[David Boothroyd]

Isn't changing terminology for political reasons something that conservatives generally have complained about? Or is it only objectionable when suggested by left-wing people?

[Dontmakemelaugh]

"By their deeds shall you know them".

We have our fair share of Muslims - mainstream or otherwise. Time to pull up the drawbridge if we wish Britain not to become a torn Country (if it isn't already). Islamists will not give up their ideological and political objectives; they will have to be defeated.
"Mainstream Muslims" (those that do not want to see an imposed caliphate on the rest of us by the use of violence) must stop being invisible and become very visible and should forget about Britain accepting Sharia (despite what the Archbishop of Canterbury wants)

Read "The Islamist" by Ed Husain and then read the history and foundation of Islam.

[Iain]

Rather than playing the game of the PC, the Conservatives should identify what they find repugnant in Islam, the Islamofascists, for that is just what the extreme elements of Islam represent, and by identify them as fascists it would have the additional benefit of giving the left a collective heart attack in being forced to recognise the unpleasant groups with whom they have politically jumped into bed.

[Steevo]

Al Gore said conservatives are mentally ill. Al Gore. For the Left's elites the rightness of their cause cannot be legitimately questioned. We have to be irrational or evil and the rug pulled out from our points of view. Even tho, many of them don't really believe in PC virtue and use it only when its convenient.

The Left have made their bed with Muslim extremism time and again. They've pulled a 180 after Clinton left and Bush entered. It accelerated after 9/11.

[SUJIT SEN]

I think it an excellent idea. There are good muslims who have been working against terrorism, some time they get offended by the word Islamophobia. Also it is important to keep on eye on the mosque like East London Mosque. On the other, the brick lane mosque run by the liberals muslims. It unfortune the last mayor Ken Livingston did not notice about the activities of the East London Mosque.

[WitanSpeaker]

Seems like semantics to me and if anyone thinks Islamist groups will suddenly be denied the ability to twist our words to their advantage by a substitution of Islam for Muslim then they do not understand what we are facing.

Many and most Muslims in the UK may well be peaceful but the statistics in this post suggest that a critical number still have views that are incompatible with a largely secular society informed by Christianity.

My tip is not to use the word phobia when talking about this subject at all. The attitude of many in Britain to the schism both Islam and Muslims are creating in Britain, evident in the statistics of this post, is not irrational at all but highly rational.

[Andrew Ian Dodge]

A good way to cut down on dislike of Muslims is for them to stop killing/attempting to kill Britons every way they can. Fairly simple solution isn't it?

[Svejk]

Martin Parsons - you are the type of right-wing nutcase who USE CAPITALS to get your point across.

Which university issued your PhD?

[John Leonard]

I have a problem with this article. I cannot believe that someone of a conservative leaning has written it!

The author complains of political correctness and then indulges himself in the very same utterly meaningless orgy of political correctness that Government and its departments seem to waste so much of their time on.

It's yet another example of 'Nero fiddling while Rome burns'

Even if the idea of changing words had some value, which it doesn't, he chooses the wrong replacement.

The word he proposes is synonymous with the one he wishes to replace or at least it will be to the vast majority of the population. To demonstrate this just take a look at Wikipedia.org. The first line of the Wikipedia article for 'Muslim' says.

'A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم‎) is an adherent of the religion of Islam'

If he must recommend a word then I suggest he recommend the word 'bigotry', because that is what it is,and the word also transcends all the divides that Labour has used political correctness to widen.

It is a great shame that such an issue has been treated in this manner. The article trivialises the very serious issues it highlights by failing to provide substantive suggestions on how to address it.

His time would be better spent identifying real ways of challenging those bigots who are peddling the evil agenda (which is illegal in many ways) that he quite rightly highlights.

However, he does not do this and unfortunately, the result is to leave readers with the conclusion that this article is political crassness gone mad!

[Patrick Ratnaraja]

"Muslimophobia" is a better word than "Islamophobia"

There is no need for PC.

If you don't like the Muslims just say it. We don't have to use this term at all.

The Muslims have to respect British Law and the Conservatives have to respect all relegions.

[Ulster Tory]

It's just dawned on me how 'Orwellian' the current government is.

PC = Newspeak

[snegchui]

The core of the whole issue is human rights vs the invocation of the law of necessity to give legitimacy to fundamentalism of any ilk. By fundamentalism, I mean absence of any wriggle room. There are many Muslims who think Al Qaeda is a bit odd, including Abdullah Azzam, Bin Laden's mentor and probable founder of Al Qaeda who was assassinated for being a sissy because he did not want to kill non-combatants. There are many Canadians who look at the Christian Dukhobors, whose core belief is pacificism (and who burnt all their weapons to save themselves from temptation), as the biggest troublemakers out as they deny the right of the state to tell anybody what to do. The RSS in India has some very interesting observations on Muslims, and there are very good reasons why India has to be a secular state. So the trick is to distinguish between groups and not label all Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists etc as adhering to one unified belief system, - internal squabbling and riotous behaviour internally is often far more vindictive than behaviours visited on outsiders of the group. Too many fringe groups and marginalised societies have too loud a voice and presence that belies their standing in their own religious grouping. Identifying them as such, ie what is the number of your membership, is more important than banging on about Muslimophobia and Islamaphobia.

[ToryNorth]

This is an excellent post, fear of Islam is not racist or bigoted. A fear of an ideology is entirely rational, especially the case with Islam.

[C Powell]

Rather than worry about what we call it - though I prefer describing those we are worried about as Islamofascists since that is what they are - I think we should be concentrating on saying very clearly that freedom of religion is a fundamental freedom in the West, that it means choosing one's religion freely and choosing to leave it, that anyone threatening death or harm to someone choosing to leave Islam is completely incompatible with Western norms, ideals and laws and the strongest action will be taken against those Muslims, mosques, preachers etc who do anything other than accept that in the UK any Muslim is free to give up being a Muslim. In short, the Muslim concept of and penalties for apostasy are not something we can accept in this country.