Hi Jack.. well I suppose I could use a different Illustration....

Lets say Geelong missed some goals in a premiership match, and the stupid full forward fumbled 3 marks in row.. CJ would have us 'hating the whole team' just because we ripped into the full foward...

is that a better approach ? :)

CJ, Ginx

I infer from your writing that you both believe Islamophobia is some great evil, like Apartheid in South Africa or the stoning of adulterers in Iran, that all decent people should condemn. CJ for example writes:

"Of course, I've yet to see someone who identifies as a Jew speaking out against Islamophobia in this forum."

As if this represents some deficiency in the Jewish community.

But Islamophobia is NOT some great evil which we should all unite to combat.

Islamophobia is simply an aversion to a belief system called Islam.

Why is an aversion to Islam a terrible evil while an aversion to Christianity, Judaism, Zionism or, for that matter, the policies of the Liberal party, is not?

Please explain why Islamophobia is bad while "Liberal-o-phobia" is not?

If an aversion to Islam is a great evil then are there any other belief systems that we may not publicly disdain?

Would you care to name them and explain why?

Or is it only Islam that merits special protection?

May I, for example, dis Zoroastrianism or is that two verboten in the worlds of CJ and Ginx?

Jack the Lad wrote:

"Yet the old sob-story of supposed events over 60 years ago is dragged up again."

You make a very valid point. I think there should be a rule that after 60 years nobody may bring up a supposed "historical injustice" as an excuse for doing anything.

60 years is an eminently sensible cut off date and I compliment you for mentioning it.

Let bygones be bygones after 60 years.

You also wrote:

"This thread appears to me to be about establishing the difference of predjudice against race to predjudice against religion."

By using the word "prejudice" you are, in fact, displaying prejudice.

See my post of Sunday, 16 March 2008 11:08:45 AM on this thread.

stevenlmeyer: "Islamophobia is simply an aversion to a belief system called Islam."

It's a bit more than an aversion, Steven. I have an aversion to Islam too, but I doubt that anybody would call me Islamophobic. Maybe we're not talking about the same thing exactly.

As a neologism, I use the term 'Islamophobia' pretty much as it's described in Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia ].

If you have a look at that discussion you'll see that Islamophobia is unacceptable for much the same reasons that, say, Antisemitism is. One can have an "aversion" to Judaism too (particularly of the Zionist variety), but that doesn't make one a Holocaust denier.

Would you agree that Antisemitism is to be discouraged in Australian society? I certainly do, for almost exactly the same reasons that I argue against Islamophobia.

Aversion is one thing, phobia is quite another.

Steven: "Let bygones be bygones after 60 years."

I think you'll eating your words when you see the "quality" of Jack's "evidence". Drawn from the furtherest corners of the interwebs, it conclusively demonstrates that the holocaust wasn't so much an extermination of the Jewish people, but a delivery to them of ice creams and kittens.

Anyway, as Jack has pointed out before with startling intellectual cunning, no one can know anything about the holocaust or indeed the past at all because - wait for it - they weren't there.

CJ Morgan : "I have an aversion to Islam too..."

This will not buy you any credit among your so-called Islamophobic crowd.

A fool is a fool, whether the fool happens to have the "right kind of attitude" does not make any difference.

I am not white, so I cannot be a racist.
I have lived in Islamic state and still have friends who are Muslims so I don't qualify as Islamophobic.
I used to be a long-time foreigner in multiple places so I cannot be xenophobic.
I cannot be an idiot judging by your inability to comprehend my logic question, let alone answer it.

To me the overriding consideration is Freedom & Democracy and Islam is a DIRECT threat to that.
My position is something quantifiable, not the type of fuzzy nonsense from your mouth.

Not only you miss out what is likely the MOST IMPORTANT consideration, your talks around "analytic terms - Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia..." are nothing but biased personal opinions obfuscated by assumptions & supposition. Useless cliche typically coming from a pseudo-intellect.

You cannot see the wood for the trees. I doubt you ever will !!