Islamophobia: a non-existing neologist portmanteau
European subsidy-sponge organization ENAR (European Network Against Racism) announces that racism is on the rise in Europe. To be more precise, Islamophobia is increasing dramatically (PDF press release)! Duck-and-cover everyone! But is this really the case?
Of course not!
First of all, Islamophobia is not and can never be racism, since Islam is a religion, not a race. The politically correct money-grabbers of ENAR take the short bus to their work, so are unaware of this obvious fact. But even if this so-called Islamophobia is on the rise, what constitutes Islamophobia? Is there really something as Islamophobia? No, there is not. Just because you can create a catchy neologist portmanteau, does not mean it truly exists. A phobia is by definition”an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something” (my trusted Oxford Dictionary in Mac OS X Leopard). Using this universally accepted definition, a fear of spiders would, in most cases, be irrational, and an aversion to Norwegians would be very extreme (darn Norwegians with their smørbrød!). But a fear of Islam?
Arachnophobia is classified as a phobia because sufferers find it difficult to live normal lives because the fear of even non-venomous spiders is always present. It is extreme and irrational. I don’t know a single person who suffers from Islamophobia, though I know many who do fear the increasing dominance of Islam in the world, and Europe in particular. Is this fear irrational or extreme? Islamophobia would be a real condition if Islam was not the determining factor in every single open conflict in the world today, if there where no forty percent of British muslims who want Sharia law, if the twin towers never came down by the hands of religiously insane virgins, if major politics in European states was not determined by Islam, if Muslim apostates were free to speak out in the lands who where once leaders in tolerance and other enlightened values… if it were not for the teachings of Islam itself.
What is labeled with the misnomer of Islamophobia is, in fact, valid criticism of the state of Islam in our modern society. Criticism that should be voiced, and openly addressed by proponents and opponents of the Islamic tradition entering our societies. It is not a phobia.
And, as I pointed out earlier, labeling criticism as islamophobia is one-sided and unfair, for when are fundamentalist Muslims diagnosed with the syndrome ‘libertaphobia’?