The Concept Of Islamophobia

A BBC report suggests that "Islamophobia pervades the UK", referring to the findings of the recent inquiry by the "Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia", carried out under the auspices of the anti-racism organization The Runnymede Trust.

One can't help fearing that in making such an open and determined linkage between hostility to Islam on the one hand and racism on the other, the chairman of the commission, Dr Richard Stone, has made a fundamental error, which will only give ammunition and support to racists. The concept of "Islamophobia" is surely a false one: what is objected to by so many in the UK is not the ethnicity of Muslims, but the tenets of a religion that seems to support terror and violence, and allies itself globally with some of the most repressive totalitarian ideologies.

I find Stone's approach, and that of the Commission, quite extraordinary. The whole issue of hostility to Islam needs a radical rethink, and a separation of ideological issues from racial ones. Otherwise, the future of community relations in the UK is bound to be affected, and they will be made even more precarious and uncertain than they already are.