The Baroness is also Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims which has just proposed the first working definition of Islamophobia. She wants the government to adopt this definition, which says that Islamophobia is “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”.
While the APPG insists it will not impair “free and fair debate” over Islam, judging by Warsi’s unseemly reaction to criticism of the definition, it may have a chilling effect on criticism of Islamist intolerance and extremism.
The Commissioner for Countering Extremism, Sara Khan, observed that the APPG’s definition had nothing to say about Muslims who publicly target fellow Muslims with hatred, ridicule and occasionally death threats for not showing enough “Muslimness” by holding opinions about Islam with which their tormentors disagree.
Typical are barbs like “Sell-Outs”, “Native Informants”, and “Uncle Toms” for this too is “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness” just like the more common non-Muslim to Muslim racism.
Both Khan and the Home Secretary Sajid Javid, also a Muslim, have been victims of this abuse and it can have fatal consequences. British Muslims have been brutally murdered because they were not regarded as the right kind of Muslim.
Yet when Ms Khan, in a calm and measured way, wrote that countering Islamist extremism does not make one an Islamophobe, instead of providing reassurance to the Commissioner, Ms Warsi fired off a volley of tweets. “This opinion piece is confused on so many levels. When even Islamophobia itself can be used by @CommissionCE as a stick to beat those ‘nasty bad Muslims’. I despair Sara.” [The Jewish Chronicle] Read more
