Not Everyone Who Criticises Islam Is Islamophobic [View all]

[trotsky]

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sorab-shroff/radical-islam-lgbt-rights_b_11080724.html

Every time an Islamic State sponsored or Islamic State-inspired attack occurs in the West, I notice a particular scenario play out on social media amongst my friends on the left: first there is the "we are with you, we are heartbroken" posts, then there is the "this has nothing to do with Islam" posts followed by the "don't be Islamophobic, Muslims died during these attacks, so it proves the people who perpetrated the attack are not Muslims" posts.

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All Islamophobes are critical of Islam. However, not everyone who is critical of Islam is an Islamophobe. Anyone who attacks another human being verbally or physically based on their race or religion is committing a hate crime - and the law should deal with that. No human being should feel attacked for their faith (or for their lack of faith). However, this does not mean we have to play out this depressing "we-are-with-you; this has nothing to do with Islam; don't be Islamophobic" scenario each Islamic State-inspired attack occurs. All that is doing is signalling to our friends how virtuous and 'nice' we are.

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If the people perpetrating these attacks believe they are Muslims, who are we to take their self-identities away from them? Every person has the right to their own religious self-description, even murderous thugs. The old line of "he ate pork and smoked and had sex with men, so he is not a Muslim" is crazy. If that is your definition of being a Muslim it would exclude the millions of Muslims around the world who happily smoke, drink, eat pork - and have sex with men (although in most Islamic societies most of these are done secretly because it is forbidden in so many of those societies). This "he ate pork so he can't be a Muslim" argument is a desperate argument. Dogs are considered extremely unclean according to Islam's holy book - does that mean that a Muslim person who is fond of dogs and keeps one as a pet is no longer a Muslim?

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Of course the majority of people who follow Islam (and the majority of people who follow any religion - or no religion) are peace-loving - no one disputes that. However, the people committing these awful acts are following a literal interpretation of Islam - and until as a society we are able to openly acknowledge that, we will not be able to counter those views. After all, if one does not admit what the cause of something is, one can never fix it. The violent periods of Christian violence in centuries past only subsided because society recognised it, spoke up against it - and criticised those aspects of the Bible which were not compatible with the modern world. Why are we so terrified to do the same with Islam?