User:SlimVirgin/Islamophobia

Islamophobia is the concept of a prejudice against or demonization of Muslims, and a dread or hatred of Islam. The term dates back to the late 1980s or early 90s, although its use has increased significantly since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, told a UN conference in 2004: "[W]hen the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of increasingly widespread bigotry, that is a sad and troubling development. Such is the case with Islamophobia.

Anja Rudiger, Executive Coordinator of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, argues that it is no longer acceptable to use skin color as an attribute to distinguish people, and that religion and culture have gained currency as "markers of seemingly 'natural' kinds of differences." She writes that Islam has become "the new 'other' ..."

The British Runnymede Trust decribed Islamophobia in 1997 as the view that Islam has no values in common with other cultures; is inferior to the West; is a violent political ideology rather than a religion; that its criticisms of the West have no substance; and that discriminatory practices against Muslims are justified. American writer Stephen Schwartz, director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, has cautioned against what he sees as a tendency to accuse all opponents of Islamic radicalism of Islamophobia, but writes that it is nevertheless a real phenomenon. He defines it as the condemnation of the entirety of Islam and its history as extremist, denying the existence of a moderate Muslim majority, regarding Islam as a problem for the world, treating conflicts involving Muslims as necessarily their own fault, insisting that Muslims make changes to their religion, and inciting war against Islam as a whole.

British writer and academic Kenan Malik has criticized the concept, calling Islamophobia a "myth." Malik argues that the concept confuses discrimination against Muslims with criticism of Islam, and that the term is used to silence critics of the religion, including Muslims who want to reform it. The novelist Salman Rushdie was among the signatories to a statement in March 2006 calling Islamophobia a "wretched concept that confuses criticism of Islam as a religion and stigmatisation of those who believe in it."