There’s no question that the term “Islamophobia” is an awkward one. In a recent discussion, Javed Hassan pointed out its inadequacy, saying: “It is translated into killing Muslim children from Kashmir through Burma, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, to Palestine.” We might also add from Bosnia, Chechnya, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, India, China, to the Central African Republic & elsewhere. Unfortunately, awkward or not, that is the term now used for the new Cold War against Muslims–although the persecution is not new at all, not by a long shot. It’s important for us to study why Muslims are targeted. In some places it’s ethnic, some places it’s religious, in other places (like Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Kashmir, Burma) it’s because those Muslim-majority places have shown the most powerful resistance to tyranny & foreign control. Sometimes it is the legacy of colonialism.
Standing with Muslims against persecution of any & every kind is the imperative in modern day politics. No concessions of any kind can be made to Islamophobia–or more aptly, as Javed pointed out, the hatred of Muslims.