The American Spectator

At Large

Best to get this out of the way from the start: Islam is a religion and a religious ideology, not a race, therefore the recurrent charge that Islam's critics are racist is nothing more than a thin smokescreen.

p>Yet this truism is repeatedly rejected by Muslim spokesmen. Visit the Islamophobia Watch website and you will find among the many attempts at a definition (e.g. "the fear or hatred of Islam") this qualification: br> /p>

[T]he term "Islamophobia" does not adequately express the full range and depth of antipathy towards Islam and Muslims in the West today. It is an inadequate term. A more accurate expression would be "anti-Islamic racism" for it combines the elements of dislike of a religion and active discrimination against the people belonging to that religion.

br> Doubtless" active discrimination against the people belonging to [a] religion " is repellant, but it is not racist. You may be anti-Islamic or anti-Christian or anti-Judaic, or like the journalist Christopher Hitchens anti-religion in toto , and still have a profound respect for all races. Indeed the equation of religion and race has long been the favorite hobbyhorse of genuine racists. Were not the Nazis adamant that Jewry was both a religion and -- first and foremost -- a race?

It is easy to understand this fixation with race. The race card is the most effective way to silence critics and undermine the credibility of one's opponent. When legitimate debate fails cry racism. In this way Muslims piggyback on the legitimate animosity toward racial bigotry.

p>Definitions of Islamophobia seem likely to multiply until they encompass every activity short of looking askance at a Muslim. Here is yet another definition, this time put together by the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia: br>

topics:
Religion, Islam, Law, Military, NATO