Quote Originally Posted by ramAnag View Post
Firstly, Islamophobia is defined as a fear and hatred of or prejudice towards the Islamic religion and Muslims.

As regards the irrational aspect. Like most phobias i.e. those relating to such things as heights, spiders, water, dogs, germs etc, the level of rationality or otherwise attached to them is contextual, i.e. there are times when fear of such things is entirely rational and others when it appears plain daft. I suppose that is the difference between fear and phobia.

To extend this to Islamophobia...contrary to your assertion, it does exist, otherwise it would and could not have been defined.
Perhaps however only those who ‘suffer’ from it are likely to believe Islam to be a ‘violent, supremacist ideology whose holy book demands I should join them or have my head cut off.’
The vast majority of Muslims do not support terrorism or subscribe to the views you describe, which further suggests that indeed Islamophobia does exist, is largely irrational and may well be something you have first hand experience of.


It seems when you use a word, it means just what you choose it to mean — neither more nor less. Actually, I think Humpty Dumpty himself would have stopped short of claiming, as you appear to do, that if a word exists then its referent too must exist. That sounds a bit like the ontological argument for the existence of god. Sadly, I know for sure god doesn't exist otherwise Ronaldo would be playing for Barnsley. Sadly, it's more likely Humpty Dumpty will get a game for us.

I'm not up on all that Freudian stuff but I'm sure a word can be contextualised when it suits.

The rest of your diatribe rests upon the widely held misconception that there are lots of good, moderate muslims and evil terrorists who justify their barbaric behaviour on a twisted, perverted, interpretation of the Quran. I've heard it all before. The Quran contains the word of Allah verbatim, word for word, it's there to read in all its gory detail. There's nothing to twist or misinterpret. God will not allow (moderate) muslims to choose what they want it to mean.