Update (08-18-2024) In this essay from 2017, and in a previous one published two years earlier, Islamophobia has no Place on the Left, I make an argument about the absurdity of reducing rational fear of Islam to a “phobia,” that is to an irrational fear of something, by asking why criticisms of Christianity are not “Christophobia” (or why people concerned about fascism not “fascophobic”). I have made this arguments many times since, here and on social media. Like my comparison of gender ideology to Scientology, which I have been promoting for a few years now (for example, Dianetics in Our Schools and Step Away From the Crazy), the logic of my arguments and analogies find their way into contemporary discourse. Whether Dawkins was inspired by my analogy is beside the point. The point is that my analogies occur to people prepared to think clearly about the world.
To gain perspective, whenever you hear and read anything talking about Muslims, the Muslim community, Muslim-majority countries, or Islam mentally substitute the words “Christians,” “the Christian community,” “Christian-majority countries,” and “Christianity.” Does the attitude/argument still make sense? Can the point your making still be justified? Are analogous criticisms of Christianity “racist” or “bigoted”? Are they “Christophobic”? Are Christians being persecuted because liberals want a secular society? Is tolerating patriarchy and homophobia necessary because these hatreds are part of Christian doctrine? Must people refrain from making or enjoying humorous observations about Christian beliefs and rituals—virgin birth and walking dead, laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, pedophile priests, because these offend Christians? Should we allow Christian communities to have their own laws based on Judeo-Christian doctrine/values? Suppose they have customs that are oppressive to women, children, skeptics, nonbelievers. Shall we accept these as “cultural diversity”? Do what Muslim believe, say, or do sound problematic or troubling when you imagine Christians believing, saying, or doing the same?
If you are not already doing this, then you have either failed to recognize that Islam is, at the very least, a religion like Christianity, and that keeping a secular republic depends on a persistent and vigorous defense of religious liberty. If you are prepared to be a vigilant secularist with respect to the encroachment of Christianity into our public and private lives, and engage in vigorous criticism of Christian doctrine and politics, including satire and ridicule, if you are prepared to offend Christians with profane and sacrilegious utterances, then you must be prepared at a minimum to express the same attitude towards Muslims.
freedom and reason 