General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Just to beat my head against a wall one more time, yes, bigotry against Islam is racism. [View all]Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)It doesn't imply that all Catholics are also *bad*, but either the Catholic church is right about the fundamental nature of the universe, or all Catholics are wrong about something moderately significant.
Also, I'm not sure it's "dishonest" to use Islamophobia to describe all criticism of Islam, because I'm not convinced the word is sufficiently well-defined. There are two obvious possible responses to people who use "Islamophobia" to mean "hostility to Islam". One is to argue the semantics of the word, and claim that they're wrong. The other is to accept their definition for the duration of the conversation, but to then point out to them that by that definition not all forms of Islamophobia are wrong, and to try and distinguish between good and bad forms of Islamophobia (as they use the word). Both approaches have drawbacks, but the latter at least cuts out the discussion of semantics.