“Muslims should dispense with this discredited term and instead engage in some earnest introspection. Rather than blame the potential victim for fearing his would-be executioner, they would do better to ponder how Islamists have transformed their faith into an ideology celebrating murder (Al-Qaeda: ‘You love life, we love death’) and develop strategies to redeem their religion by combating this morbid totalitarianism.”
Daniel Pipes rejects the term “Islamophobia”. He takes particular exception to the fact that he himself is regularly described as an Islamophobe. (“What I really am is an ‘Islamism-ophobe’.”)
Note the ludicrous claim that “Muslims acting in the name of Islam today make up the premier source of worldwide aggression”! Whereas US imperialism is of course a source of peace and harmony.
Note too that Kenan Malik (described as a “British Muslim”!), Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Irshad Manji get favourable name-checks.
Robert Spencer for his part applauds Pipes’ “cogent and much-needed observations about the spurious phenomenon of ‘Islamophobia'”. Dhimmi Watch, 25 October 2005