Quote:
Originally Posted by well named
I don't think the term "Islamaphobia" is intended to refer to merely strong disagreement or aversion to specific dogmas or practices of various Muslim groups or governments. I would be absolutely opposed to the US government adopting policies like Saudi Arabia, but I'm not very worried about it happening. I am worried about and strongly opposed to ISIS, and I worry about ongoing problems with radical Islamist groups and tensions related to refugees from various countries. None of those things make me "Islamaphobic" imo, but when people use the term I don't believe that is what they are claiming.
Instead, they are usually using the term to refer to responses to the above problems that are over-generalized, irrational, or otherwise unnecessarily and harmfully prejudicial. There can definitely be a debate about what sort of responses qualify, and which don't, but imo the fact that many Muslims for example support laws involving homosexuality which are bigoted is neither here nor there with regard to the question of Islamaphobia. One can strongly oppose those laws and that specific element of Islamic practice without being Islamaphobic, but one can also be opposed in a way that is Islamaphobic, and it really comes down to how specifically you respond and what actions you try to justify.
Islamophobia makes more sense to me when it is applied to fears towards specific Islamic dogmas. I feel like it became a problem when it started to be applied to racial prejudice. Now you have a word that clearly breaks down to "fear of Islam" meaning something else.
I'm getting cynical about this stuff and am starting to believe these moves are not exactly done by accident. If a person broadens the definition of these terms that carry a social cost to them (racist/islamophobe/misogynist), they can try to control the dialogue by threatening to tarnish dissenters by misapplying these terms. Maybe it's not done here with the word islamophobic but it's done with racist/white supremacist all the time.
I'm glad Evergreen was brought up because that's exactly what was done to that professor. Some students wanted to kick white people off campus for a day, the professor said "wtf, no" and the place goes insane.
(The guy who called in a death threat after this all happened was obviously in the wrong as well and probably had psychological issues. But that doesn't take away from the real weirdness that is happening within some elements of the left)
Another part of this is the fact that it's actually good to have words that have this power. We want actual racists to not do or say racist things for fear of being called a racist but the labels will start to lose their meaning if half of Trump supporters start being called deplorable or worse.
It seems like we all need to decide that misapplying these labels should also carry a pretty heavy social cost.