It is a trope among people who loathe and fear Islam that their fear and loathing has nothing in common with racism because Islam is not a race, the implication being that hating Muslims is rational and wise whereas hating black people is deeply irrational and stupid.
Some people who claim that Islam is profoundly evil will also say that they bear Muslims no ill will but I don’t think they are telling the truth. It is really difficult and indeed psychologically unnatural to claim that you hate an ideology without hating the people in whose lives it is expressed.
[TOP RATED COMMENT 272 votes] This argument is complete nonsense. I despise many aspects of Catholicism but my wife and family are Catholics. In the same way I loathe many aspects of Islam but that doesn't stop me liking Muslims who are nice to me.
[ANOTHER] False. First paragraph, and you're already distorting the argument. It's not that "hating Muslims is rational and wise". It's that disliking Islam is rational and wise. And no, saying so doesn't make anybody "islamophobic": some few, brave Muslims say so themselves:
[ANOTHER] This is nonsense. Islam is a vile, backward belief system that not only threatens world peace but represses its adherents. But Muslims are not vile! They are as much the victims of this medieval voodoo as anyone else, particularly the women.
[ANOTHER] "Some people who claim that Islam is profoundly evil will also say that they bear Muslims no ill will but I don’t think they are telling the truth."
It's more like pity - it's perfectly possible, for example, to hate the regime in North Korea and yet feel sorry for the poor bastards who have to live under it. I think Catholicism is an evil, backward religion but I went to Catholic school and I don't hate my former classmates, I'm still good friends with a good proportion of them.
[ANOTHER] It is perfectly reasonable to single out one particular religion as particularly bad if there is evidence to support it. Not all religions are exactly the same, and at this present time Islam is informing or being used to justify some of the most repressive, conservative and inhumane regimes on the planet.
Simply recognising that Islam is particularly bad is no indication of racist attitudes. [Guardian Cif] Read more
