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The JC Letters Page, 29th March 2019

Michael Lazarus, Frank Adama, Michael Hart, Mrs S Lewin, Adny Kaufmann, Henry Miller and Stan Labovitch share their views with JC readers

March 28, 2019 10:06
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3 min read

Lexicon of fear and loathing

There can be no argument with David Aaronovitch about the Christchurch massacre (JC, March 22), which all decent-minded people must condemn in the clearest, unequivocal terms.  


There is, however, a question to be asked about the word we use to describe hatred of Jews — antisemitism— and the word we use for what Aaronovitch describes as hatred of Muslims — Islamophobia. The OED describes phobia as an extreme or irrational fear or dislike of a specific thing, which raises the following question:  Are not antisemitism and Islamophobia creatures of a different hue?  Antisemitism is universally  recognised as meaning prejudice towards, or hatred of Jews, while Islamophobia translates linguistically as fear of Islam, rather than hatred of Muslims.

 
If they are the same, would not antisemitism be described as Judeophobia? It is not, because they are distinctly different.  I do not hate Muslims, to do so would be irrational and I am not irrational, but I do have fears relating to Islam based on factors which might induce fear in even the most rational of people; namely, the killings in towns and cities across Europe by adherents to an extreme form of Islam and, furthermore, the terrible litany of inter-communal killing, Muslim killing Muslim, in countries across the Middle East and in Pakistan.  Yes, let us live peaceably together while at the same time accepting the difficulties posed by an Islam that has not yet completed its reformation.


Michael Lazarus
Herts