Is ‘Islamophobia’ a flawed concept?

If a politician or a newspaper columnist decides that the general public could do with a shock, they will sift through the weapons of mass provocation at their disposal to find the most politically barbed expressions and phrases to launch at us. I’m sure you know to what sort of jargon I am referring. One of the most popular and potent buzzwords used to cause a stir and get people talking is ‘Islamophobia’. If an injustice is adjudged to have befallen a Muslim in Britain (or elsewhere for that matter, but forgive me if I keep my focus on Blighty for now) then people from all walks of life and across the political spectrum put this down to a fervent and passionate hatred of Islam, which is apparently prevalent in the UK.

But does a culture of Islamophobia really exist? Is there a widespread and irrational distrust and hatred of Muslims in Britain, or does the notion of Islamophobia merely cloud our ability to criticise and condemn the actions and motivations of a tiny minority who are guilty of (or advocate) atrocities? The issue of the extent and vigour of anti-Muslim sentiment is an incredibly sensitive one, but I do not believe that ‘Islamophobia’ is a useful concept in helping us differentiate between necessary and impartial criticism of religion, or the actions of people who happen to be Muslims, on the one hand and unjustifiable, deplorable discrimination against Muslims on the other.

Any definition of Islamophobia contains the idea of intense hatred of and hostile, discriminatory behaviour towards Muslims. It is, too, important to state that it is a term applied more readily to societies and groups than to individuals. We read of countries, such as Britain, possessing a culture of Islamophobia, and the term is commonly used to refer to a group mentality rather than the actions of an individual. If the definition were used to describe an individual, then there are very few people who could accurately be described as Islamophobic. Some individuals are genuinely motivated to abuse and attack Muslims, but the exact motivation for such attacks is often sheer ignorance and basic racism, rather than a specific aversion to Islam (I suspect the overwhelming majority of those guilty of attacks on Muslims would struggle to tell you anything accurate about Islam at all). But when the term ‘Islamophobia’ is used to refer to a group there is more difficulty in being able to justify that label. Research carried out in America suggests that over the last decade or so, even immediately after September 11 2001, Muslims were the victims of proportionately fewer politically or religiously motivated attacks than Jews, black people and homosexuals, and only marginally more than white Christians. It is interesting to note that even in the immediate aftermath of one of the most notorious displays of Islamic fundamentalism, Muslims in the West are still subject to proportionately few hate crimes.

Now, of course, one hate crime is too many, and anyone who attacks a Muslim for being a Muslim can accurately be described as Islamophobic (as well as ignorant, bigoted and vicious), but the evidence suggesting that Western culture is Islamophobic is, to say the least, limited. Baroness Warsi, former Chair of the Conservative Party, said in 2011 that “anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry…has seeped into our society” and is seen as “socially acceptable”. If British culture thought hatred and bigotry toward Muslims were acceptable, then it would have to be the case both that a) such discrimination would have to be unavoidably manifest across the country and b) this discrimination would have to be demonstrably and exclusively anti-Islam, rather than the (no less unacceptable) generalised xenophobia of ignorant skin-heads. Speaking from both my experience (admittedly as a white non-Muslim) and my reading of the evidence neither of these hold true.

Hostile and hateful discrimination of Muslims is rare, certainly when we compare today to Britain around thirty years ago. Furthermore, when Muslims are victimised and abused, it is seldom the case that this is the result of deliberate and particular hatred of the tenets and doctrines of Islam. It is more commonly the result of uninformed racism (not that one can be much of an ‘informed racist’), which has just as much a chance of being carried out on a Hindu, Sikh or anyone of Asian origin. It is not my intention to deny that some members of our society are, sadly, harassed and abused on a daily basis because of their race or religion. Rather, it is to attempt to analyse the content of the term ‘Islamophobia’ and argue that it need not be a politically poisonous buzzword, as our society is not as guilty of as widespread a hatred of Islam as the definition of Islamophobia necessitates in order for it to be applicable on a national level.