Is It Fair To Label Stephen Fry An "islamophobe"?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/stephen-fry-hits-back-at-accusations-of-islamophobia-8793025.html

[FredPuli43]

It means "I don't know what racism [as meant by our laws] is, but I will accuse anyone who criticises any tenet of Islam, as held and applied by any misguided adherent, as a vile condemnation of the whole faith, and I will then feel morally superior"

[FredPuli43]

^as making a vile" ^

[sandyRoe]

I don't know if he's an Islamophobe, but I do sometimes think he's too clever by half.

[naomi24]

Fred, but did it mean something else 20 years ago?

[sandyRoe]

It's had to think of the term being used at all 20 years ago.

[ludwig]

Anyone who thinks it's a fair accusation is a truthophobe.

[ichkeria]

The word is not in an edition of Chambers I have from about 10 years ago.
Collins quotes its usage only from about 2002 (which doesn't necessarily prove anything) Same with "islamofascism"

I think the general drift is "hatred or fear of Islam or its followers". Most "-phobias" imply either fear or hatred or both. I suppose you may apply either depending on the subject. My niece has bananophobia: she fears bananas but does not hate them in the way an islamophobe might hate (or indeed fear) Moslems

[paddywak]

I don't think he hates Islam, I think he is like a lot of people who hate the various acts which are committed by people in the name of religion,irrespective of what that religion is.

[FredPuli43]

Naomi, I would have guessed it dates from 9/11, the 11th of September, 2001. Collins [above] dates it as current from 2002, which fits.

[Octavius]

A phobia is an irrational fear, so if you fear Islam you are being irrational. Fear of violence is not a phobia since its not irrational or unjustifiable to fear something like that.

Mr Fry is not an Islamaphobe.

[keyplus90]

If a Muslim is killing innocent people then calling him a terrorist or whatever is not Islamophobia. However blaming religion due to the actions of handful people is Islamophobia. As he said that he does not associate that to Islam (as a religion) then I, as a Muslim believe that he is not Islamophobe. However I would love to see people condemning openly when innocent Muslims are killed too. But that does not happen. And that is the reason I do not call people Islamophobes but I do call them bias. Especially when their memory only takes them to post 9/11 and even in that they pick and chose.

[Octavius]

"However I would love to see people condemning openly when innocent Muslims are killed too. But that does not happen."

Have you not seen the debates on Syria and the chemical attacks ? You are being disingenuous keyplus.

[Kromovaracun]

"However blaming religion due to the actions of handful people is Islamophobia."

That doesn't seem to be what is happening, though. There are repeated patterns of undesirable human behaviour that seem to frequently (though not always) derive from being a follower of Islam. It's these kind of problems that people like Fry are concerned with attacking, rather than the more neanderthal "Muslim = terrorist" argument.

[chrisgel]

Interestingly, the words first usage appears around 1912.

"These early uses of the term did not, according to Christopher Allen, have the same meaning as in contemporary usage, as they described a fear of Islam by liberal Muslims and Muslim feminists, rather than a fear or dislike/hatred of Muslims by non-Muslims"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia#Proposed_alternatives

[anotheoldgit]

There were many who feared 'ALL' Germans during WW2, we didn't have labels for them back then, because almost everyone thought the same, so would they today all be called Naziphobians?

[Octavius]

Probably something with anti in it. Anti German, anti Nazi, anti fascist etc etc rather than teutophobia.

[keyplus90]

/////Have you not seen the debates on Syria and the chemical attacks ? You are being disingenuous keyplus./////

Let the America & co start killing in the same country and then you would never hear about it, let alone condemnation.

[Octavius]

"Let the America & co start killing in the same country and then you would never hear about it, let alone condemnation."

Have you not seen the debates on Syria and the chemical attacks ? You are being disingenuous keyplus.