The Trivialisation Of Islamophobia

Let’s begin this with one sentence that apparently still needs to be said: Islamophobia is awful, wrong and destructive.

All over the world, there are people who are discriminated against simply for the fact that they are Muslim. In the UK especially this is a massive problem. From a national newspaper spreading hateful lies about muslims, to a woman having her Niqab ripped off at Kings College London, Islamophobia is an issue so potent in the UK that is not being adequately tackled, and it is incredibly important that it is dealt with properly.

Any fight of importance, historically, does always have an issue with some of its campaigners, and in particular those campaigners who find a way to trivialise issues. From the CND in the 1980s having to deal with members showing up in face paint and fancy dress, to people campaigning against hate speech having to deal with those who simply see ‘banning it’ as an adequate response; there will always be people behind any fight worth having that don’t quite know how to have that fight. The same is true of the fight against Islamophobia. I will provide two examples.

The first example is a message sent to me by a friend. About two weeks ago I shared a brilliant article by John L. Allen Jr. entitled The Lahore Attacks Are Just the Latest Atrocity in a War On Christians. It’s a really good article and if you haven’t already read it you should. About two hours after I shared it I received a message from a friend on Facebook, and I won’t post the exchange here (mainly for the sake of brevity) but it culminated in him telling me that by sharing the article I was being Islamophobic. He also told me that ‘It’s okay, I’m sure you didn’t mean to be Islamophobic.’ Well that’s fine, because I wasn’t.

You see, apart from the odd mention of Boko Haram, the article focuses almost entirely on state persecution of Christians. It talks about the anti-Christian riots in India in 2008, the Burmese air-strikes against Christian areas in 2010, and the state persecution of Christians in nations like China and North Korea. The article is entirely focused on the problems facing Christians worldwide, and at no point attributes blame to Islam or Muslims.

So how exactly can this be construed as Islamophobic? In what way is it Islamophobic if it does not attack Islam, the followers of Islam or their way of life? The short answer is: it’s not Islamophobic. It is simply an article about the persecution of Christianity which my friend has construed to be Islamophobic most likely because of a misguided assumption that for something to be pro-Christian it must also be anti-Islam. This is not the case. Our two religions can, and should, live side by side.

The next example happened more recently. My friend and colleague Ekaterina was at NUS Women’s Conference this week, and while a candidate was on stage giving a speech she sent this tweet, which was met with this reply, and many others like it:

Now, regardless of whether or not you agree with Ekaterina’s stance, it is clear that this tweet is in no way ignorant. Neither is it, as some suggested, Islamophobic.

You see, in order for a tweet to be Islamophobic, it has to specifically attack either Islam, or a person for being Muslim. That is not what Ekaterina was doing, she was simply pointing out that she believes that a good Women’s officer will focus on more that one religion. Ekaterina’s focus was on the plight of all women, her message was that in order to represent well you must represent as many as possible; if your aim is to only represent one group within your community or electorate then you will not be a good representative.

Instead, people on Twitter quickly jumped in to hurl abuse in her direction for even suggesting this. They insulted her, laughed at her, and some even attempted to threaten her job. They did this because of an incorrect analysis of what Islamophobia is, and this is a problem that will ultimately effect us all.