Is Islamaphobia justified?

[Union Of Canadorian Socialists Republic]

I am Muslim, and being a Muslim in America is not very..... lets say.... accepted. I've been called many terrible things, relating me to terrorism, genocide, and spousal abuse. America is not very accepting to the Islamic religion, however American media often Shows Islam as evil. With this in mind, is the poorly informed American public justified in their views of Islam? My answer is no

[EnragedMaldivians]

I am Muslim, and being a Muslim in America is not very..... lets say.... accepted. I've been called many terrible things, relating me to terrorism, genocide, and spousal abuse. America is not very accepting to the Islamic religion, however American media often Shows Islam as evil. With this in mind, is the poorly informed American public justified in their views of Islam? My answer is no

As long as we don't define Islamophobia as any negative perception held of Islam or as anything critical of Islam or Muslim communities, then of course not. It is a kind of prejudice.

[Cameroi]

neither more nor less then christiophobia is or would be. aggressophobia and economic dominance ophobia are considerably more so.

[Risottia]

I am Muslim, and being a Muslim in America is not very..... lets say.... accepted.

Oh well cry me a bucket... I'm Atheist (ok, actually Ignosticist) which means being associated with immorality, criminality, genocide, and foetus-eating.

[Warshania]

"muh phobias"

[TaQud]

however American media often Shows Islam as evil.

maybe the media hates religion

[Saruhan]

Depends on what you define as Islamaphobia. If it's just hating Muslims for no real reason (or just hating them at all really) than it's not something to tolerate. If it's a dislike of Sharia law and steadfast opposition to it being brought here I see nothing wrong with that (I rather think that's good idea and should be supported)

[The Joseon Dynasty]

It's not a phobia if it's justified.

[Kemalist]

Any kind of hatred and discriminitive views toward any group are not justified at all. This hatred is mostly brought up by right-wing conservative fascists so don't take them seriously, try to be around sane and reasonable people.

[Stanisburg]

If you mean acting like Islam is inherently worse than any other basic religious doctrine, then no, of course it's not justified. There are plenty of nice, intelligent Muslims in the world along with a smaller number of fanatical, violently intolerant Muslims, just like there are lots of nice intelligent Christians along with a smaller number of fanatically intolerant Christians.

That said, there does seem to be some social/political factor at work which is currently causing the more fanatically intolerant Muslims to have somewhat more influence over the world's other Muslims than the fanatically intolerant Christians have over most of the other Christians in the world. (There are intolerant people with fanatical beliefs who are influential in Christianity--like the Pope, on certain issues, in my opinion--but they are somewhat less influential and less fanatical than their Muslim equivalents.) I think it's ridiculous to pretend that the reasons have anything to do with the difference between what the Quran says about God and what the Bible says about God, but it's still true that this is happening.

It's not "Islamophobic" to point this out, or to say "hey, Muslims in Afghanistan--WTF is going on over there?"

There's also no excuse for demanding that people who don't share your religious beliefs follow the rules that your religion lays down, especially if you use threats of violence to pressure them. If I want to make a brainless low-budget movie about Muhammad for some reason, I'm fully within my rights to do that. If that bothers you because of your religious beliefs, well they're your beliefs so that makes it your problem and not mine. If your religious leaders tell you otherwise and you listen to them, then I guess I would have a problem with your religion, but strictly on the grounds of it threatening my rights on that one particular issue.

(Not you personally, OP. The rhetorical "you.")

[Risottia]

It's not a phobia if it's justified.

But is it?

[Aurora Novus]

If you mean acting like Islam is inherently worse than any other basic religious doctrine, then no, of course it's not justified.

So what if Islamic doctrine is shown to condone things that are objectively worse than, say, Shintoism. Is it suddenly unjustified to say Islam is worse than Shintoism?

[EnragedMaldivians]

If you mean acting like Islam is inherently worse than any other basic religious doctrine, then no, of course it's not justified.

So what if Islamic doctrine is shown to condone things that are objectively worse than, say, Shintoism. Is it suddenly unjustified to say Islam is worse than Shintoism?

Yeah, I never got this whole idea that we must pretend all religions should be praised or condemned equally, as if they didn't have different doctrines alongside concomitant merits and demerits.

[The Joseon Dynasty]

It's not a phobia if it's justified.

But is it?

Well, no, by definition. Criticism of Islam can easily be justified, though, assuming we're separating that from Islamophobia.

[Kemalist]

If I want to make a brainless low-budget movie about Muhammad for some reason)

That is just about the educational level of a country. Look; those violent protests, or the huge protests mostly occurred in the Muslim-majority countries with an extremely high poor uneducated population. Did you see any in Bosnia, Albania, Turkey, Malaysia etc. ? for example in my country, Turkey nobody was even aware of such a movie, I had not even heard of it before I saw the violent protests in the Middle East. If countries such as Libya and Egypt had a Christian majority, and someone made a movie insulting Jesus, we would probably have seen the same things occurring.

[EnragedMaldivians]

If I want to make a brainless low-budget movie about Muhammad for some reason)

That is just about the educational level of a country. Look; those violent protests, or the huge protests mostly occurred in the Muslim-majority countries with an extremely high poor uneducated population. Did you see any in Bosnia, Albania, Turkey, Malaysia etc. ? for example in my country, Turkey nobody was even aware of such a movie, I only heard of it when I saw the violent protests in the Middle East. If countries such as Libya and Egypt had a Christian majority, and someone made a movie insulting Jesus, we would probably have seen the same things occurring.

Employment levels more like. I'm guessing countries where there are a lot of frustrated, unemployed youth have more people who have the time of day to protest on weekdays more so than in countries like Turkey, which is relatively more prosperous than Egypt. Though I don't know much about Turkey's employment figures to be fair.

[Kemalist]

That is just about the educational level of a country. Look; those violent protests, or the huge protests mostly occurred in the Muslim-majority countries with an extremely high poor uneducated population. Did you see any in Bosnia, Albania, Turkey, Malaysia etc. ? for example in my country, Turkey nobody was even aware of such a movie, I only heard of it when I saw the violent protests in the Middle East. If countries such as Libya and Egypt had a Christian majority, and someone made a movie insulting Jesus, we would probably have seen the same things occurring.

Employment levels more like. I'm guessing countries where there are a lot of frustrated, unemployed youth have the time of day to protest on weekdays more so than countries like Turkey, which is relatively more prosperous than Egypt. Though I don't know much about Turkey's employment figured to be fair.

Well, Turkey still has a high unemployed population, but that's not the point. It's about the illiteracy. Libya and Egypt suffer from that, and their educational system really sucks which leads to the growing of unequipped, intelligically incomplete generations.

[Zottistan]

Justified? Not at all.

[Martean]

No, it's never justified.

[Aurora Novus]

So what if Islamic doctrine is shown to condone things that are objectively worse than, say, Shintoism. Is it suddenly unjustified to say Islam is worse than Shintoism?

Yeah, I never got this whole idea that we must pretend all religions should be praised or condemned equally, as if they didn't have different doctrines alongside concomitant merits and demerits.

Precisely my point.

Also, as someone else stated, it's not a phobia if it is justified. A phobia is an irrational fear. If it can be shown that it is rational to fear the doctrines espoused by Islam, then "Islamiphobia" isn't even a real thing, let alone unjust.

[Genivaria]

The fear of Islam is most certainly justified, as is the fear of Chrisitanity and any other faith that has a history of spreading through bloodshed and terror.

[Densaner]

I am Muslim, and being a Muslim in America is not very..... lets say.... accepted. I've been called many terrible things, relating me to terrorism, genocide, and spousal abuse. America is not very accepting to the Islamic religion, however American media often Shows Islam as evil. With this in mind, is the poorly informed American public justified in their views of Islam? My answer is no

No offence to you or Islam but you don't do yourself a lot of favours. The popular image of Islam is one of intolerance, bigotry and violence. I live in the UK and there are precious few "moderate" muslims who successfully counter those stereotypes. And i'm afraid there are plenty of crimes that reinforce them.

[The Emerald Dawn]

A phobia, by definition, is something that can not be justified.

[EnragedMaldivians]

Yeah, I never got this whole idea that we must pretend all religions should be praised or condemned equally, as if they didn't have different doctrines alongside concomitant merits and demerits.

Precisely my point.

Also, as someone else stated, it's not a phobia if it is justified. A phobia is an irrational fear. If it can be shown that it is rational to fear the doctrines espoused by Islam, then "Islamiphobia" isn't even a real thing, let alone unjust.

Well, that being said I also don't want to go down the route of pretending there isn't a lot of prejudice and irrational fear in the West towards Muslims - mostly manifesting in perceptions of them as a subversive collective hell-bent on violence and the dismantling of the secular state.

I think we have to make a distinction between being even highly critical of Islam's beliefs and doctrines - and demonisation and caricature of Muslims and Islam motivated only by pure bigotry, holding Muslims and Islam to standards not held towards other faiths and their adherents. There's a subtle nuance there I think, that a lot of folks get wrong.

And, as per whether it is rational to fear things such as Sharia, it also depends very much on the political and demographic situation of where you're from. I have a rational reason to fear Sharia law because it is something my country actually enforces, and Musims control every aspect of our society and government. A person from the Netherlands or the U.S...not so much.

[Kemalist]

A phobia, by definition, is something that can not be justified.

I have a claustrophobia, oh well...