There is a difference between making remarks that are anti-Muslim and making remarks that are anti-Islam.
Muslims are people: The Arabic word for Muslim means “one who submits” –– to God, that is. Islam, by contrast, means “submission” and is an ideology –– that is to say, a set of truth-claims and prescriptions, like communism, Catholicism or conservatism.
It is one thing to say “Muslims are terrorists” and something different to say “Islam is incompatible with Western values” or even “Islam is wrong.”
Take Martin Peretz’s infamous commentary in The New Republic: “Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.” To begin with –– because it is not clear to me that this is universally accepted in Western Europe –– Peretz ought to have the right to say this. He does have the right to say this, under American law. [The Rocky Mountain Collegian] Read more [via National Secular Society]
