Phobias and Other Things

 

A phobia is an intense and unreasonable fear of something. In our time the word is used incorrectly and misleadingly to denote something else altogether. “Homophobia” has always been a silly term. The problem wasn’t that people were afraid of lesbians and gay men. Almost no one was. The problem was persecution of and discrimination against lesbians and gay men. The same thing is true of “transphobia”. The issue is not one of fear but rather one of discrimination.

Things are different with “Islamophobia”. It is also a misleading term but for a different reason. It is quite reasonable and not phobic at all for anyone to be at least a little worried about a religion with millions of its followers believing and much of its clergy teaching that it is not only acceptable but desirable to kill non-believers. A non-believer living in a Muslim domain would have reason to be more than a little fearful. Such sensible concerns do not justify Islamophobia as the term is used vulgarly – discrimination against Muslims for being Muslims. There are plenty of Muslims who have no interest in murdering non-believers and a good number who are liberally minded. Individuals deserve to be judged as individuals, whether they are embracing liberal values or revealing themselves to be savages by cheerleading for Hamas savages.