VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Alun|DATE|1357553451|CONTENT|Yes, it is nonsense, starting with the term &#039;islamophobia&#039;. There is no such thing, it isn&#039;t a phobia to reject, mistrust, dislike or even hate an ideology that warrants those feelings, and putting the &#039;religion&#039; label on the ideology changes nothing. A phobia is an unwarranted or irrational fear of something, but there is nothing unwarranted or irrational about many people&#039;s feelings towards Islam, it is a valid response to the ideas and the effect of those ideas on people. All religions have their problems, and I have a very low opinion of christianity on the whole, and that certainly has an atrocious history and (particularly with the RC church and some sects) a pretty atrocious present, but I don&#039;t think any current ideology has the same success in making decent and basically moral human beings turn into murderous psychopaths as islam. That isn&#039;t an irrational feeling, it is one that has been driven by many events involving many people, and to ignore it is foolish.

I have no doubt that islam will go through a reformation and become more tolerant, and there are signs that this is happening already; and it is most definitely true that most muslims (indeed all the ones I have known) have been very decent people that it was a pleasure to know and call friends. That does not let the ideology itself off the hook. Islamophobia is just a transparent attempt to stifle any criticism, and should be rejected out of hand.|EMAIL|alunap@mac.com|IP-ADDRESS|170.148.215.156|MODERATIONFLAG|