Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “chock”, has a familiar theme: Mo is a hypocrite but realizes it too late. The strip came with a note:
The latest news about the UK’s Islamophobia law is that it’s been delayed. Here’s that news report:
The UK government has delayed publication of an official definition of Islamophobia, which was expected by the end of August.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner had tasked a working group with drafting a non-statutory definition to describe anti-Muslim behavior. However, the timeline has been pushed back to autumn after an online consultation drew an unexpectedly large public response.
The consultation link, circulated on social media by Conservative shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho, went viral and generated thousands of submissions. Officials say the sheer volume of responses has extended the review process.
Critics, particularly from the Conservative Party, argue that a government-backed definition of Islamophobia risks restricting free speech and could mirror blasphemy laws. Muslim organizations, meanwhile, have urged the government to take action, citing rising hostility towards Muslims across the country.
The government has stressed that the proposed definition will not create new legal obligations but will serve as guidance for public institutions. A spokesperson confirmed that recommendations will be published later this year.
The delay has prompted questions over transparency and whether the government is prepared to balance freedom of expression with protections for Muslim communities.
I wonder where the public response came from, and why they can’t get rid of the “phobia” bit and model it after, say, “antisemitism”? Anyway, here’s the strip:
A big difference is that Islam is a religion (whereas Jews are a people), there is nothing wrong with being critical of or opposed to a religion or to people espousing a religion.
Frankly I’d like to get rid of the “—phobia” modifiers for anything which is not, in fact, a phobia.
Which would make me guilty of Phobiaphobia.
But, I’m afraid of people who are against using the -phobia suffix for things other than psychiatric phobias. I’ve got Phobiaphobiaphobia!
(How many times do we have to iterate before we surpass antidisestablishmentarianism for length of common English words?)
They deliberately conflate criticism of Islam, the ideology, with hatred of people who are Muslim.
And I have never understood why it is fine for a religion to claim that unbelievers deserve to roast in Hell, but any criticism of that religion is deemed to be “hate speech.”
Indeed, why doesn’t someone involved with formulating the legislation in question insist on including a clause which labels calling for a non believer to burn in hell a form of hate speech on par with the islamophobic acts or words being censured? (One could of course add many such clauses referencing very common hateful and horrid things that the religious habitually say about non believers or those who believe wrongly.)
+1
+2
As always, “islamophobia is a term coined by cowards, and used by fascists to manipulate morons.”
Thank you, Mark, I was just groping for that last sentence. Is it Hitchens? Should be, it is the kind of thing he’d say.
I won’t start on what I think of “Islamophobia” but if you’ve read me here or my column you might guess (the Boss clips my wings when I start on these topics, probably rightly) 🙂
Jihadwatch.org (the gold standard in Islamophobia) republishes my work.
D.A.
NYC
-proud Islamophobe
While not specifically an Islamophobe… more an ilithiophobe, especially if any power is bestowed on them.
Too easy. Most of these people aren’t stupid. They just want you dead, or at least to use force to shut you up, with the goal of taking power, not just having it bestowed on them.
Not sure. It sounds like Hitchens, but I think I’ve seen it attributed to various people (although a quick check shows that most of the internet citations have somebody or other attributing it to Hitchens).
I’ve bookmarked jihadwatch.org, and placed it with thereligionofpeace.com and barenakedislam.com (whose tagline is “It isn’t Islamophobia when they really ARE trying to kill you”.
I daresay I could possibly develop a ‘phobia’ if someone wanted to terminate me and seem happy about it.
If Muslims want to live in a country where criticism of Islam, or hostile suspicion about its followers, is forbidden, they should move to one. No one is going to impose an exit tax on them. Why did they even come to the West if they wanted a theocracy with sharia law? Aren’t gonna find it here. We hope.
Turkey’s President Erdogan famously said that Islam will conquer the West via the fertile wombs of Muslim immigrant women. So some of the Islamic migration to the West is with that goal in mind. Other migrants just want to live better lives, but are encouraged to maintain their dysfunctional homeland cultures by the woke champions of “multiculturalism” in the West.
If you are a sane infidel who is not “Islamophobic” then you have not read the Koran and Hadiths.
Or any number of pronouncements by moslem leaders over the last few decades.