The Myth of Islamophobia

Islamophobia? Bollocks!!! Western governments have bent over backwards to accommodate the jihadists. Nothing will satisfy them but full control and integration into the "ummah".

From The European Conservative

By Lauren Smith

The idea that Muslim communities are systemically discriminated against throughout Western Europe is pure fantasy.

Listening to many Muslim activists and leaders, you would think that Western Europe is a hotbed of anti-Muslim hatred. That Muslims cannot leave their homes without fearing for their safety. Or could not participate in mainstream society without facing debilitating prejudice. 

Scottish former First Minister Humza Yousaf complained earlier this year that the current political climate “certainly makes me feel unsafe, and I suspect makes most Muslims question whether their future could possibly be in this country.” In the same vein, the UK Labour government is toying with the idea of adopting a more expansive definition of Islamophobia that would bend any criticism of Islam or Muslims as hate speech. According to the French Council of the Muslim Faith, French Muslims feel they are “no longer safe from constant suspicion.” One survey in the Netherlands earlier this year apparently found that anti-Muslim “discrimination is structural, widespread, and normalised.” The Islamic Commission of Spain similarly warned against the “widespread spread of hate speech against Islam, Muslims, mosques.” 

Reality tells a different story, however. In fact, many Western European societies expend vast amounts of time, money, and energy in accommodating Muslim communities—even to the detriment of the native population. A cursory glance at the news recently will tell you all you need to know. In Spain’s North African exclave of Ceuta this week, the government has banned the serving of pork in public schools and mandated halal meals. This means that any meat offered in school cafeterias must be slaughtered according to Muslim religious practices—the animal is killed by a Muslim, in the name of Allah, by slitting its throat and draining its blood, without first being stunned. 

Something similar is happening in schools in Barcelona. Not because of government mandates, but because of rapid demographic change. In one district, Sant Martí, 80% of public schools serve halal meals to pupils. None of these schools, however, offer a special menu for Lent, the time of year when Christians traditionally fast or remove certain food groups from their diets. 

Pork is vanishing from school cafeterias in Vienna, Austria, too. It was reported earlier this week that traditional dishes like schnitzel and roast pork are less and less being given to pupils at lunchtimes, and many schools have stopped offering meals containing pork altogether. This is hardly a surprising development, given that 41% of all Viennese schoolchildren are Muslim, as of this year. That makes Islam the dominant religion in Vienna’s schools. 

Across the border in Germany, even more sweeping accommodations are being made for the growing Muslim population. In the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, the local government decided last month to introduce Islamic Studies as a new subject in schools, subject to student numbers and teacher qualifications. It also plans to give Muslims in the state two new public holidays, allowing civil servants, students, and employees to take days off for Ramadan and Eid al-Adha. Naturally, non-Muslims won’t be able to take advantage of these two new holidays, and Muslims in Germany will still be given time off for Christmas and Easter. This is also a somewhat odd decision, given that Muslims currently account for less than 5% of Schleswig-Holstein’s population. In fact, there are currently more Catholics than Muslims in Schleswig-Holstein, and yet Catholic festivals like Corpus Christi curiously don’t receive the same special treatment. 

In many cases, though, these accommodations aren’t enough. There have been episodes in which the Muslim minority resorts to intimidation to get special privileges for its community, forcing the native majority population to bend to its will. This August in a Paris suburb, a gang of Muslim youths managed to force the local authorities to cancel a planned screening of the Barbie movie, because it apparently “promoted homosexuality and insulted the image of women.” In immigrant-heavy Noisy-le-Sec, radical teens threatened council workers and tried to smash up equipment, stopping the film from being shown as part of a free outdoor cinema programme for deprived locals. France, which has the largest Muslim population of any country in Europe, is often held hostage by Islamists who demand that society revolve around them. 

So too is the UK. Back in 2023, four pupils at a secondary school in West Yorkshire were suspended for supposedly “desecrating” a Quran. One of the boys had taken it to school after losing a dare with his friends, and, at some point, the book was dropped to the floor and scuffed. For this, the headteacher, a local imam (who was also a councillor), and even a policeman got involved. The boy’s mother—made to cover her hair—was hauled in front of a meeting at a mosque, where she was made to apologise for her son’s apparent blasphemy. She explained that her son was terrified and that he had received death threats. Nonetheless, the police logged the Quran scuffing as a “hate incident.” Mercifully, none of the children involved were actually prosecuted. 

Even worse was what happened to one anonymous teacher at the Batley Grammar School, also in West Yorkshire. In 2021, the religious studies teacher was forced to go into hiding after he showed images of the Prophet Muhammed to his class, something forbidden by Islam. In response, large protests amassed outside the school, calling for the teacher’s sacking at the minimum. Bizarrely, instead of standing behind its member of staff for giving a completely normal lesson about freedom of speech and religion, the school immediately caved. It branded the class as having been “completely inappropriate,” as it “had the capacity to cause great offence to members of our school community.” The teacher in question was suspended and, ultimately, cleared to return to work. But how could he? He had received death threats and feared for his life. He and his family were eventually forced to move house and go into hiding. 

Few hatreds are seen as more sacred than Islamophobia. The regular, widespread arson attacks against churches in France, for example, are seldom commented on outside the right-wing and Christian media. And nowhere is this favouritism clearer than when it comes to antisemitism. Since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas, antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed in practically every Western European country. As of this week, Jews suffered the highest rate of hate crimes in England and Wales this year. The statistics equate to 106 crimes per 10,000 Jews, versus 12 crimes per 10,000 Muslims. And yet Islamophobia is almost always the chief concern of politicians and the pundit class. Even when antisemitism does get a mention, it is usually in the same breath as Islamophobia. 

None of this is to say that individual Muslims can never experience discrimination at the hands of other individuals. But to suggest that there is some kind of systemic Islamophobia in the West is pure fantasy. Muslim communities almost uniformly receive preferential treatment and protection by national and local authorities. From arresting people who burn Qurans to allowing critics of Islam to be hounded out of society, Western Europe is well and truly devoted to appeasing Muslims—even to the detriment of the native Christian populations. So long as the loudest Islamist voices are happy, the rights of everyone else are irrelevant. 

The West is in thrall to a radical, often violent, minority. We cannot keep rewarding this intimidation. If we continue bargaining away our rights, there will soon be nothing left.