ing-left: 40px”>These concerns have been brought into sharp focus in the past week because the APPG report gives the example of ‘grooming gangs’ as a ‘subtle form of anti-Muslim racism’.
In the past, this has led to people who’ve drawn attention to the overrepresentation of Muslim men in grooming gangs being branded Islamophobic, even though we have good evidence of that.
The threat to freedom of speech could hardly be clearer. This is precisely the same mentality that led to the rape gangs cover-up in the first place.
In light of the chilling effect the APPG definition of Islamophobia has had on discussion of the rape gangs, is it time to consign this term to the history books? As Christopher Hitchens said: ‘It is a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.’
As has been said often enough, this is introducing a blasphemy law by the back door. Islam isn't a race; it's a religion, an ideology. The problem lies in the Muslim belief that Islam is not just something you believe in, but forms an essential part of your being – hence the seriousness of apostasy. For them, then, the term "Islamophobia" is equivalent to racism in that the belief is inseparable from the person. But that's no reason to accept those terms here, where freedom of speech has been fought for over generations, and remains central to our democracy.
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