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.
