Tell MAMA, an organisation that tracks attacks and threats against Muslims in Britain, has published an interesting blog post in which it clarifies what it means by "anti-Muslim prejudice".
It's a useful point of reference for anyone interested in understanding the work of the organisation, but it is also a good contribution to a long running debate over the terminology that is used in the discussion of discrimination and prejudice towards Muslims.
While the word "Islamophobia" has become a widely-used and recognisable term for such prejudice, there are many who object to it because it implies that it is somehow prejudicial to criticise Islam as a belief system, thus conflating attacks on people because they are Muslim with legitimate criticism of Islam as a religion.
As Tell MAMA make clear in their post, it is necessary that the two things are not conflated, and it should be possible to oppose discrimination and prejudice against Muslims while also supporting the right to criticise Islam. Unlike "Islamophobia", the term "anti-Muslim prejudice" avoids the conflation of the two:
We have made clear before that our role is not to ‘protect religion’ but to support victims of anti-Muslim prejudice and to work with police forces to ensure that prosecutions are secured where possible. Our work also involves mapping, measuring and monitoring anti-Muslim hatred. This means that those who are critical of religion, whether it is Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or any other belief system are not the focus of our work unless, for example, contextually they target Muslims and in doing so also use Islam as a cover for marginalising and caricaturing Muslims.
Read more on the Tell MAMA site.
