Really?

Islamophobia is the worst form of terrorism.

I find this stuff shocking. The forgiegn ministers of several Islamic nations have issued a statement that asserts that fear is Islam is more dangerous than terrorism done by Muslims who happen to be terrorists.

We can argue about whether the Islamic faith actually fosters terrorism, but it is really hard to argue that most of the major terrorist acts in the last decade were carried out by Muslims. We cannot equate the horrors of Bali and Madrid with the publication of offensive cartoons in a newspaper. We cannot equate the Pope's statements about Islam with the murder of 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. Any scale which finds the cartoons and the statements more serious than the murders is measuring by weights I do not know.

Check out these statements. The first is an example of using words to say nothing.

"[Islamophobia] is something that has assumed xenophobic proportions." Which is to say, the fear of the Islamic nations (if it exists) has reached the scale of a fear of foriegners, which is what xenophobia means. Does anybody know what they were trying to say?

Other statements seem to be complete nonsequiters to me. For example "Islamophobia became a source of concern, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks...." I would agree that the incidence of Islamophobia increased after 9-11, but I wonder why that particular date is relevant? Did something happen on 9-11? It's a funny date to pick.

Again: "It gained further momentum after the Madrid and London bombings. The killing of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 was used in a wicked manner by certain quarters to stir up a frenzy against Muslims." Ergo, Islamophobia increased after attacks by Muslims.

The argument seems to be that the West should not fear Muslims in general and should not degrade the Islamic religion. We're good so far.

But I thought that the ministers said that Islamophobia was more dangerous than any other form of terrorism. Showing (without actually using data) that there was a religious backlash after attacks carried out by proponents of a particular faith is one thing; actually showing that the backlash is worse than the initial attack is one thing.

I hav