Tag: Islamophobia
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Defining Islamophobia
The below article was published on sister-hood. “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness” – All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims definition of Islamophobia The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia has mainly been framed as a free speech issue.…
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In Toronto LGBT Iranians were branded as ‘Islamophobes’
My latest piece in The Freethinker. At Toronto Pride on June 25 some ‘anti-fascists’ surrounded Iranian refugees and LGBTQ activists and absurdly chanted ‘No Hate at Pride’ – as if defending LGBTQ people in Iran or countries under Islamic rule is ‘hateful’. Police intervention ensured that they weren’t able to stop the Iranians from joining…
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Common humanity should be at the core of our politics
The below is my monthly column for The Freethinker published on 19 February. You can read it there too: Common humanity should be at the core of our politics too. I was born in Iran; I am a migrant, a refugee. But I am not the “authentic other” that xenophobes love to hate nor am I the…
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With rigour, against Islamism
A statement defending freedom of expression and the right to criticise Islam was published in today’s LIBERATION. Below is the English translation. A corner-stone of our democracy – the freedom of expression and its corollary, the freedom to criticise – is seriously challenged on behalf of a falsified vision of the fight against racism, which equates…
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Charlie Hebdo’s Mohammed cartoon was not Islamophobic
My opening remarks at Oxford Union debate with Tariq Ramadan on 29 February 2016 Criticism of religion – however offensive – is not racism against believers. Islamophobia is in fact used to conflate blasphemy with bigotry in order to impose Islamist norms on the wider society. Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Mohammad are no more “bigotry”…
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Defending Charlie and Opposing Terrorism is not enough; You need to stand up to Sharia Courts
This is a shortened version of my speech for a public meeting organised by the NE Humanists on 19 March 2015. Dissent and criticism of religion has always been a crucial aspect of free expression. Such criticism has been key for human progress and is needed more than ever in the age of ISIS. For…
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Not anti-Semitism or Islamophobia
The Right-wing are in overdrive trying to prove how the children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza are fakes. Their crocodile tears for ‘Muslim’ women and children are only for when and if they are murdered by Islamists; then (and only then), are these part-time ‘champions of women’s rights’ outraged. But if they are killed…
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Charges of offence and Islamophobia are secular fatwas
Here is my speech at today’s Blasphemy Conference in London: There have been a number of recent attacks on free expression here in the UK. They include 17 year old Rhys Morgan being forced to remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon or face expulsion from his Sixth Form College and demands by the UCL Union…
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Islamophobia is used to scaremonger people into silence
The Guardian has published a letter calling for an inquiry into the ‘anti-Islam’ press. Whilst racism must be unequivocally condemned, the signatories – like the Guardian, confuse racism with a criticism of Islam. They are not one and the same no matter how many letters and articles the Guardian publishes. Islamophobia is nothing but a…
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Islamophobia: No can do
Islamophobia: No can do Maryam Namazie Published in Iranian.com August 12, 2004 Imagine at a synagogue somewhere in London, Jews are working together to send out £1m worth of books, DVDs and videos about Judaism and the Torah as an act of ‘self-defence’ against anti-Semitism and ‘Judaism-phobia’. Or imagine black South Africans during Apartheid sending…