The New Statesman recently published an article online commenting on the M&S alcohol 'non-story' and touching on the issue of gender segregation on campuses. Contrary to most articles, it looked at these stories for what they actually are. Although there are still people who do not accept the existence of Islamophobia, not even as a concept, these desperate and rather embarrassing attempts to keep a negative portrayal of Islam in the media have led some people, such as Ian Leslie, to conclude that Islamophobia really is an issue.
Of course we could spend the majority of our precious time defending ourselves against stories and statements that are tailored to demonise Muslims, and quite often we do get caught up in debates on social media etc in an attempt to set the record straight. But I am starting to question whether this is the best use of our time and resources? Are we so caught up in verbally defending our beliefs that we have little time or energy to put those very beliefs into action?
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So why is this a news story? And why is it a story about Islam?
Until now I’ve been sceptical about the arguments of those who throw the term "Islamophobia" around. Partly this a reaction to word itself, a lazy emulation of the term homophobia (which incidentally means fear of the same, which is of course exactly what it isn’t). But mainly it’s because I don’t think the British people are phobic about Islam or its adherents.
Measured against any country in the world with a comparable mix of races and cultures (of which there are few) our record of tolerance stands up well. Every day, people in offices and shops rub along with Muslims, laugh with each other, help each other out. The calmness with which British people reacted to Lee Rigby’s killing was impressive. The EDL must have been dreadfully disappointed.
But a year of stories like the M&S one has persuaded me that our national news agenda is distorted by a deep suspicion of Muslims. Islam animates our media like few other topics, and just as the left’s obsession with Israel overlaps, unprovably but unmistakably, with anti-Semitism, so there is something that just smells funny about the recurrent shock-horror headlines over vanishingly insignificant issues of conduct. Playground spite is being dressed up as "debate".
Take the row over whether university societies should allow segregated debates: it’s a tiny story affecting about seven people, but because it involves Islam, national figures weigh in and commentators with virtually no knowledge or interest in the people concerned express passionate certainty.
Earlier this year, the BBC’s Question Time devoted twenty minutes to a discussion of whether Muslim nurses should be allowed to wear the veil when dealing with patients. As members of the panel – none of whom were Muslim - ploughed through their sententious answers, none thought to ask why it was necessary to ask this question in the first place, since nobody had yet been able to cite one concrete instance of the problem it referred to.
These are not news stories. They are spasms of prejudice. In ten or twenty years time, they’ll be forgotten. But when we’re reminded of them, we’ll feel ashamed of the way they filled the air in 2013.
Full article- http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2013/12/furore-over-mss-muslim-staff-policy-shows-islamophobia-problem
