Over at the National Secular Society blog Anne Marie Waters of the anti-sharia campaign One Law For All (OLFA) complains that the London School of Economics students’ union adopted a resolution defining Islamophobia as “a form of racism expressed through the hatred or fear of Islam, Muslims, or Islamic culture, and the stereotyping, demonization, or harassment of Muslims, including but not limited to portraying Muslims as barbarians or terrorists, or attacking the Qur’an as a manual of hatred”. Waters demands: “Who decides what constitutes hatred and are we now being told what we can and can’t be afraid of?”

Waters will, however, be pleased to hear that there are still people who staunchly uphold her right, and that of fellow OLFA spokesperson Maryam Namazie, to whip up fear of Islam. OLFA’s campaign against sharia has recently been endorsed by the white supremacist website Stormfront. Some might feel embarrassed to receive the support of far-rightists whose promotion of hostility towards Islam is clearly part of a general programme of inciting racial hatred. But then, as Waters herself puts it, who decides what constitutes hatred?