“Whoever coined the term ‘Islamophobia’ was quite shrewd. Notice the intellectual sleight of hand here. The term is not ‘Muslim-phobia’ or ‘anti-Muslimist’, it is Islam-ophobia – fear of Islam – yet fear of Islam is in no way the same as hatred of all Muslims. One can rightly or wrongly fear Islam, or more usually, aspects of Islam, and have absolutely no bias against all Muslims, let alone be a racist.

“The equation of Islamophobia with racism is particularly dishonest. Muslims come in every racial group, and Islam has nothing to do with race. Nevertheless, mainstream Western media, Islamist groups calling themselves Muslim civil liberties groups and various Western organizations repeatedly declare that Islamophobia is racism.

“… if one says that Islam does not appear compatible with democracy or that the Islamic treatment of women is inferior to the West’s, he or she is labeled a racist Islamophobe … the term ‘Islamophobia’ has one purpose – to suppress any criticism, legitimate or not, of Islam. And given the cowardice of the Western media, and the collusion of the left in banning any such criticism (while piling it on Christianity and Christians), it is working.”

Dennis Prager at Real Clear Politics, 31 July 2007

It was Prager, you may recall, who attacked US Congressman Keith Ellison’s decision to take his oath of office on the Qur’an. Prager claimed that “the act undermines American civilization” and went on to compare the Qur’an to Mein Kampf. (See here, here and here.)