Religion & Ethics: Content from Across the ABC




Date/Time 19 Apr 2014 4:37:44am
I am always concerned about labels. Islamophobia or Islamophobic etc, is a relatively new one, which joins a list including racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc.

The reason I am concerned is that labels such as these can be used to stifle debate. An example might be a person discussing curbs on immigration and using pure economic points. If someone accuses the person of racism, which is *sometimes* at the core of an immigration debate, the discussion disintegrates and becomes a personal discussion on whether the person is racist. I have heard this quite a bit on radio talk shows. There are similar examples other than immigration. After the Bradford riots sometime ago, a lady was in a three-way conversation on a show, making the point about non-integration and that some people in the Asian communities haven't learnt English. Another caller called her racist and an argument ensued, with discussion completely broken down. I never got to find out if she was racist. A day later, the government said the same thing, and they are still saying it, even demanding immigrants learn English. Is the government racist, or was that a pertinent point that didn't deserve being stifled on the radio show?

I will admit to the fact that I don't particularly like the idea of homosexual sex, but I have nothing against homosexuals and stand for their rights. Some might call that homophobic, (I would hope most would not) but it is also true that I don't like the idea of anal sex in a heterosexual sense, so am I heterophobic, or perhaps analphobic? Where does that stop? It is true that some heterosexual marriages stay away from certain aspects of sex because one partner dislikes it. Given that, the same may be true of a homosexual relationship. Therefore, if a homosexual man dislikes homosexual sex, is he homophobic?

There is no word yet for a parallel with Christianity, but surely Christianophobia will come. How could that happen? At the moment, it could be along the lines of disagreeing with some Christians on their stance against gay marriage. I know vicars (via published articles), who are for gay marriage, so would that make a vicar a Christianophobe?
If anyone argues against Creationism (or Intelligent Design) being taught alongside Evolution in schools, could that make them Christianophobic or maybe Creationophobic? There are other examples.

In terms of being in a minority, I am a football fan (but don't go), and many years ago when hooliganism made the front pages, it was obvious that some people viewed all football fans as moronic hooligans (some still do). That was incredibly annoying to be labelled so unreasonably.

So what of Islamophobia? The definition above is long and to me means in summary: A person who has an unreasonable fear of Islam and would actively try to deny all Muslims equality in society. In short, that's the EDL and their like, and they would deserve the label.
But what of reasonabl