What I learned with my top-performing Substack article is many expect me to loathe and detest all Muslims uncritically. I'd rather my loathing be justified.
A month ago my article 2025 Is Not Shaping Up To Be A Good Year For Muslims became my top-performing Substack, in which I noted that with the rapid decline of woke progressivism in the face of a wildly un/popular new President, we now have the freedom to publicly discuss what was once verboten in polite progressive company, if that’s not already an oxymoron.
Which is that the religion of Islam, and its well over two billion followers, are seriously lagging behind the rest of the, frankly, more civilized world, and we need to start dissecting it publicly because Muslims are never going to change their reactionary, tribalist ways until we grab them by the short ‘n’ curlies.
I wrote at length about the UK’s hardly-new ongoing Pakistani Muslim rape gang scandal, regularly flaring up like a bad case of genital herpes. I spoke of Islamic-supported global antisemitism, ongoing terrorist attacks in democratic countries, sometimes but not always perpetrated by immigrants. I addressed whether we need to be stricter in our immigration standards for people from a clearly highly volatile part of the world. One of my readers, YourUnclePedro, summed it up: ‘Someone once likened Islam to the dumbest kid in class who lags behind everyone and vents his frustrations through violence and simply causing problems wherever he goes.”
The most interesting comments came from the blanket-haters. The subject of Islam generates extremely strong feelings including some obviously justified fear, and my critics were many. But as I repeatedly pointed out, there are over two and a half billion Muslims in the world and they’re not all sex trafficking little white girls, convening to discuss how to impose Shariah law on Wisconsin, running over partygoers with cars or blowing things up. Muslims, like all other groups of people and cultures, have their good folks and their bad and every shade in between. What was most notable about my negative commenters was how we mostly agreed that Islam has a serious violence problem and Muslims overall need to be held accountable for problems rooted and codified in their religion. My article was 80% critical of Islam and 20% praiseworthy or just a reminder that not all Muslims suck. What outraged the outraged the most was the 20%, not the 80%.
What is Islamophobia, and why are people so fearful?
Wikipedia describes Islamophobia as, “the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general.” It further remarks that it’s “primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereotype Muslims as a geopolitical threat or a source of terrorism.”
I purposely chose Wikipedia’s definition because it’s famously ‘progressive’ left. I agree with calling Islamophobia ‘irrational’, ‘hostile’ and against the religion and its practitioners ‘in general’. This is what I found not only in the comments on my article, but in a separate non-related Notes thread in which I got challenged by many Islam critics.
But, Wikipedia ignores how pervasive Islamic terrorism has been throughout the world, so one must question whether fear of it is a ‘stereotype’ considering how much Islam has earned it. However, it’s important to note (Trigger warning for woke righties: I’m about to say something nice) that many Islamic states have joined the effort to reduce or defeat Islamic terrorists. As CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) notes, it’s mostly a problem in places where the government is unable or unwilling to meet their population’s critical needs. Donald Trump’s brilliant idea to cut foreign aid means ISIS or China will be the good guys feeding poor families, not the United States. Oh, that’ll work out great for us geopolitically.
It’s interesting, though, that religiously-motivated terrorist acts seem mostly motivated by the Islamic faith.
Christianity stopped being the scourge of Europe hundreds of years ago. Hindu violence is primarily regional, based on Hindu nationalism and mostly targets Muslims. The ongoing violence in Israel is also regional, although strong feelings about which side is ‘right’ are universal. Gazan complaints about ‘genocide’ and casualties come from primarily Muslim Gazans, pretty famously terrorists themselves, alliance with Hamas optional.
At any rate, only Islam exports terrorism globally.
Many of my critics, Islamophobic or not, pointed out how the faithful are commanded in the Koran to commit countless violent acts and other human rights violations. They’re correct; too many Muslims today subscribe to those ugly and barbaric human violations.
So, if Islamophobia is an irrational fear of Islam and its adherents, what would you call the rational fear of it?
How about Islamojustifobia: The justified fear of Islamic extremism.
The fuzzier terrorist-ish types
The fuzzier terrorist threats come from Muslims who say nothing or financially support it, even if they never trigger a suicide bomb.
Muslim lesbian feminist Irshan Manji details the Muslim ‘buts’ in her book Allah, Liberty & Love: The Courage To Reconcile Faith and Freedom. The Muslim ‘but’ folk are the kind of people who say they don’t support some bad thing “but….” signalling they’re about to support that bad thing.
“I don’t support terrorism BUT….”
They can sort of, you know, sometimes see the point? The exceptions? Like for the Gazans? Or against Americans? Or, of course, need we even say this, Jews? They make excuses.
The ‘buts’ are ‘fuzzy terrorists’.
Islamojustifobics differ from Islamophobics in that they can distinguish between the ‘good Muslims’ and the ‘bad Muslims’. They recognize the bomb throwers; the rogue drivers; the global recruiters; the ‘good Muslims’ who emigrate to get away from their own crazies but who may still raise children who aspire to be terrorists—perhaps by teaching them to hate Jews from birth as is common in many of their cultures, or whose children are radicalized by friends; or ‘progressive’ anti-Israel, anti-American, anti-West education. The pre-requisites for the terrorist profession are low: All you have to do is hate Jews, the West and its freedoms. Bonus: Maybe you ideate suicide.
You can no longer detect an Islamic terrorist by their skin color or telltale keffiyeh. They come in all colors and may not tote a gun, and may be much prettier. The radicalization of antisemitic college students by October 7th has been heavily organized and facilitated by female students.
Oh, the irony for a famously misogynist religion.
Or, what patsies for Islamofascist extremism those little ‘antifascist’ girly-boos are.
The ‘progressive’ left has long had a hard-on for Islam, despite its infamous misogyny and homophobia.
But, you never know what terrorism your other neighbors support. Whaddabout the non-Islamic fuzzies? Many Irish-Americans who don’t identify as terrorists or supporters nevertheless financially supported the IRA during its heyday. Black Lives Matter supports Hamas. Your ‘anti-fascist’ teenage headcase neighbor across the street might be building bombs in his basement or ordering weaponry to blast the local mosque or synagogue.
Or, maybe your neighborhood terrorist is that creepy dude down the street who pays especial attention to small children.
The difference between Islamophobes and Islamojustifobes
Anti-Muslim incidents have risen around the world since 10/7, but nowhere close to the level of anti-semitism (Thanks, Islam! Not.) But the backlash has begun; several European and the United States have voted in anti-immigration leaders.
There will be plenty of talk about what to do about Muslim immigrant wannabes. Or what to do about the ones already there. I wonder if Trump will try a Muslim ban again; he might succeed this time in a more broken, more lawless America.
Islamojustifobics, though, always remember that people are individuals. Islamophobes, on the other hand, read the Koran, or read about the Koran, or believe what their friend told them on Twitter about it and think they know the religion when in fact what they know is what someone else says about it, factually or not. They ignore (or are ignorant of) progressive Muslims and their non-profits encouraging adoption of progressive Islam. To be fair, we don’t always see them. It’s not as safe to be a public Muslim as much as it once was, either. Progressive Muslims may be hiding in greater numbers than we know because now they don’t have only their own crazies to worry about, but the far right’s too. ‘Progressive’ lefties are useless, openly justifying and collaborating with Islamic terrorism.
International students now face potential deportation from a Trump Executive Order.
I have to admit: Cry me a Jordan river about how your free speech is being shut down, bitches. Trumpenfreude. Frankly, I want these holy terrors gone, too. These particular Muslims aren’t civilized enough to live in a free, and, at the moment, still democratic country.
Enough is enough. Countries have the right to decide who to let in, and keep in, their countries. I said that even as I waited on my Canadian immigrant application. I would never have snuck across the border.
Islamophobics want to eliminate all Muslim immigration. I want to eliminate or prevent only the obviously bad guys.
I favor much stricter immigration requirements for Muslims because of their clear violence and radicalization problems. They need to be scrutinized much more closely and if we can’t be sure about a particular immigrant—REJECTED.
This will send a very clear message to the Muslim world that the West is sick of their shit. That we’re tired of Muslim immigrants coming to our countries and radicalizing others. You MUST be willing to adopt and live with our democratic values or stay home. They demand exactly the same of us when we move to their countries.
Trump has emboldened the UnWoke to step out of their hidey-holes and make their opinions known. The wokies no longer have the power to shut down Islam critics, even though it’s only a short-lived honeymoon as the MAGAs are blanket-hating Islamophobes and we may all have to return underground soon. It may be rooted in Islamojustifobia, but rank, non-discriminating fear is always simply—phobic.
What to do
Moderate and progressive Muslims can join their non-Muslim allies to fight Islamic extremism in their communities and the greater MAGA threat on the outside. We’ll also need to address our ‘progressive’ terrorist collaborators.
While Muslims need to own their members’ misdeeds, the rest of us must hold the far left accountable for its willful blindness against crimes planned or perpetrated by Muslims. You can’t be a #MeToo feminist when you’re collaborating with some rapes. We need to directly confront progressives’ racist willingness to hold only white men accountable for sex crimes. We need to hold them especially accountable for their own terrorist crimes and acts against Jews.
Progressives fancy themselves warriors against divisive societal evils while perpetrating those exact same evils themselves. We have to go after their teachers too, and the education system that indoctrinates children with Israel-erasing, anti-white, misogyny-apologetic nonsense.
We must call out their performative outrage every time a Trumper shoots the Nazi salute, while waving their ‘I Stand With Hamas’ signs at the ‘pro-Palestinian’ rally.
A quick way to identify an Islamophobe is by her support for her own side’s terrorism or potential for it. Many of those fearful of ‘Shariah’ law are those who tried to impose ‘Christian’ law on America during the Reagan-Bush years and who are behind Project 2025.
Does the suspected Islamophobe fear all religious authoritarianism, or just someone else’s? Because true anti-authoritarians fear all of it, and the rest are blind to their own dictatorial impulses.
I prefer to be Islamojustifobic. I live in a neighborhood full of Muslims and I walk around fearlessly. I probably couldn’t in their own countries, especially as a blonde white woman. But they accept they can’t act like that here. I won’t be able to expect that level of non-violence the next time I visit the Ignited States, if I even do in the next four years. Goddess knows I won’t be flying anywhere there.
Islamic extremism is a genuine threat, but any ideology taken too far is, too. Like woke progressivism. And now, TrumpMAGAism. Let’s resolve to be Islamijustifobic so we can fight the right Muslims and leave the rest alone to live their lives like the normal people they actually are.
Yes really. Regardless of what you hear on your favorite Islam-hysterical podcast. The decent ones don’t make the news because they’re too busy being all normal and shit. Just like us.
Be Islamojustifobic rather than Islamophobic. Fight all extremism. Because if your kid is blown up on a bus your kid’s going to be dead regardless of whether the terrorist hates Jews, Americans, ‘libtards’ or ‘fascists’.
Did you like this post? Do you want to see more? I lean left of center, but not so far my brains fall out. Subscribe to my Substack newsletter Grow Some Labia so you never miss a damn thing! There are also Substack and Spotify podcasts of more recent articles!
Comments