Islamohysteria

Recently, lots of people have been coining terms about Islam and attitudes towards Islam with the prefix “Islamo-“, and I’ve decided I want to join in. So here goes:

Islamohysteria ( n): a state of hysterical or irrational Islamophobia, characterised by the belief that the presence of openly practising Muslims is a threat to Western freedom and culture.

Sound good?
Right-wing organisations and individuals in Britain, continental Europe, and the USA have been expressing Islamohysteric points of view for a while now. Nick Griffin of the British National Party has used the phrase “huge numbers of Muslims shouldn’t be in Britain trying to convert Britain into an Islamic society.”  The ironically named Party for Freedom in the Netherlands wants to ban the Qua’ran on the basis that it explicitly teaches its readers to commit terrorist acts.  Fox news in America has released extensive reports claiming that Europe is being “Islamified”.

Islamohysteria basically comes down to two claims: the majority of Muslims are terrorists, and/or the majority of Muslims want to convert Western civilisations into Islamic ones, via the so-called process of “Islamification.”

Both of these claims are baseless and unjust. There are millions of Muslims who were born in America and Europe, and don’t want to terrorise or the West or disestablish West democracy any more that the average white Christian does. Also, consider the vast majority of the inhabitants of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc. These are ordinary working and family-raising people who have seen their homelands devastated by war and violence from Islamist extremists, and the Western responses. Do you really think these people want any more violence? Do you really think they are likely to join forces with terrorist organisations who have made their lives hell?

Also, Islam really isn’t very different from Christianity.  Both are monotheistic, both are Abrahamic, both place much value in prayer and missionary work. Is there much difference between the aims of the Red Cross and the Muslim concept of Zakat? Of course, people like to contradict this by pointing out the violence that has been committed in the name of Islam, but by doing this, they turn a blind eye to much of Christian history. Why are the actions of the Taliban so much worse than the crusades, the Northern Irish troubles, and the persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages?

There is no reason for Western culture to antagonise Islam. It is very much related to the Juedo-Christian heritage that European tradition and culture is largely based on, and there is no proof, none whatsoever, of an organised Islamification movement.

Islamohysteria is irrational, discriminatory fear-mongering. It must be countered by rational voices in politics and the media, in the same way that we counter sexism, homophobia, and white supremacy.