uncomfortable or ugly. But they are not actually happening. The imagination is a place where hypotheses and conditionals rule, and where part of the fun, and most of the point, lies in saying the unsayable in order to test the truths of what’s most often said. An assault on an ideology is not merely different from a threat made to a person; it is the opposite of a threat made to a person. The whole end of liberal civilization is to substitute the criticism of ideas for assaults on people. The idea that we should be free to do our work and offer our views without extending a frightened veto to those who threaten to harm us if we do isn’t just part of what we mean by free expression. It’s what free expression is. The social contract at the heart of liberalism is simple: in exchange for the freedom to be as insulting as you want about other people’s ideas, you have to give up the possibility of assaulting other people’s persons.
Faith is not the enemy. Fanaticism is the enemy. It always is. But only a fool would deny that faith has been the seedbed of fanaticism in mankind’s long and sorry struggle for the light. As much as at times we need to seek “solidarity” among unlike groups, we also need to “desolidarize,” to “unsolidarize”—to put the people we know before the abstract categories we imagine. Come to think of it, making people, with all their flaws, fully visible while leaving generalized types alone is exactly what the caricaturist has always done for us. It’s his special form of bravery.
If you think criticizing religion is an expression of racism,
If you think “Islam” is the name of a people,
If you think it’s okay to make fun of everything except what is sacred to you,
If you think sending blasphemers to jail will get you into heaven,
If you think humor is incompatible with Islam,
If you think a cartoon is more dangerous than an American drone,
If you think Muslims have no sense of humor or irony,
If you think leftist atheists are playing into the hands of reactionaries and xenophobes,
If you think someone with Muslim parents must also be Muslim,
If you think you know how many Muslims there are in France,
If you think it is important to identify citizens by their religion,
If you think popularizing the concept of Islamophobia is the best way to defend Islam,
If you think defending Islam is the best way to defend Muslims,
If you think the Koran forbids drawing the prophet Muhammad,
If you think a caricature of a jihadist looking ridiculous is an insult to Islam,
If you think that when right-wing crazies attack an Arab they are really attacking Islam,
If you think every ethnic group should have its own anti-racism association,
If you think Islamophobia is the counterpart of anti-Semitism,
If you think the Zionists who run the world have paid a stooge to write this book,
Well, happy reading, because this letter is for you.
Islamophobia is the new racism
Let’s face it—the term “Islamophobia” is poorly chosen if it’s meant to describe the hatred felt by a few morons for Muslims. And it’s not just poorly chosen, but dangerous.
If we look at it from a purely etymological perspective, “Islamophobia” should mean “fear of Islam.” But the inventors, promoters, and users of the word deploy it to denounce hatred of Muslims. I find it odd that “Muslimophobia,” or the broader term “racism,” has not gained ground over “Islamophobia.” Either of those would be on a firmer footing, semantically speaking. So why has “Islamophobia” won the day?
Out of ignorance, laziness, and error, for some, but also because many of those who militate against Islamophobia do so not to defend Muslims as individuals, but to defend the religion of the prophet Muhammad.
Racism has existed in all countries ever since the invention of the scapegoat. There will probably always be racists. The solution is not to paw through the minds of every citizen, searching
Faith is not the enemy. Fanaticism is the enemy. It always is. But only a fool would deny that faith has been the seedbed of fanaticism in mankind’s long and sorry struggle for the light. As much as at times we need to seek “solidarity” among unlike groups, we also need to “desolidarize,” to “unsolidarize”—to put the people we know before the abstract categories we imagine. Come to think of it, making people, with all their flaws, fully visible while leaving generalized types alone is exactly what the caricaturist has always done for us. It’s his special form of bravery.
If you think criticizing religion is an expression of racism,
If you think “Islam” is the name of a people,
If you think it’s okay to make fun of everything except what is sacred to you,
If you think sending blasphemers to jail will get you into heaven,
If you think humor is incompatible with Islam,
If you think a cartoon is more dangerous than an American drone,
If you think Muslims have no sense of humor or irony,
If you think leftist atheists are playing into the hands of reactionaries and xenophobes,
If you think someone with Muslim parents must also be Muslim,
If you think you know how many Muslims there are in France,
If you think it is important to identify citizens by their religion,
If you think popularizing the concept of Islamophobia is the best way to defend Islam,
If you think defending Islam is the best way to defend Muslims,
If you think the Koran forbids drawing the prophet Muhammad,
If you think a caricature of a jihadist looking ridiculous is an insult to Islam,
If you think that when right-wing crazies attack an Arab they are really attacking Islam,
If you think every ethnic group should have its own anti-racism association,
If you think Islamophobia is the counterpart of anti-Semitism,
If you think the Zionists who run the world have paid a stooge to write this book,
Well, happy reading, because this letter is for you.
Islamophobia is the new racism
Let’s face it—the term “Islamophobia” is poorly chosen if it’s meant to describe the hatred felt by a few morons for Muslims. And it’s not just poorly chosen, but dangerous.
If we look at it from a purely etymological perspective, “Islamophobia” should mean “fear of Islam.” But the inventors, promoters, and users of the word deploy it to denounce hatred of Muslims. I find it odd that “Muslimophobia,” or the broader term “racism,” has not gained ground over “Islamophobia.” Either of those would be on a firmer footing, semantically speaking. So why has “Islamophobia” won the day?
Out of ignorance, laziness, and error, for some, but also because many of those who militate against Islamophobia do so not to defend Muslims as individuals, but to defend the religion of the prophet Muhammad.
Racism has existed in all countries ever since the invention of the scapegoat. There will probably always be racists. The solution is not to paw through the minds of every citizen, searching
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