Opinion
Melanie Phillips is wrong. Her comments about Islamophobia are dismissive and inaccurate
Hope Not Hate's deputy director responds to JC column that said: 'We must call out the Muslims who hate Jews'
April 12, 2019 11:13
3 min read
Hope Not Hate's deputy director responds to JC column that said: 'We must call out the Muslims who hate Jews'
April 12, 2019 11:13Imagine if a conservative, although not extremist, Muslim commentator had written an article in a national Muslim paper, suggesting Muslims ‘call out the Jews who hate Muslims". Imagine the article used terms like "fanatical", "deranged", "grotesque" and "manipulative".
Now read Melanie Phillip’s piece in the JC, where she suggests the Jewish community call out Muslim antisemitism, using inflammatory language, hyperbole and contorted arguments to attack, not for the first time, the Board of Deputies and our wider community.
She begins by discussing "deranged antisemitism coursing through the Arab and Muslim world" impacts America and Europe. No one sensible would deny that there is a huge issue with antisemitism in Arab states and in most Muslim majority countries. Likewise, it is a fact that there are higher rates of antisemitism among the British Muslim community than among the wider population.
She conveniently ignores the part of the JPR research she cites which shows that these attitudes are far less likely to be held by people who have met Jews and count them among their friends. Using a word like "deranged" is inflammatory.
Where I disagree with her approach is in the language she uses to describe the issue, and in her criticism of the British Jewish community’s response. She claims that British Jews are silent on Muslim antisemitism, "with a few exceptions". This is just not the case. It is just that the response has been sophisticated and multi layered, an approach that Ms Phillips is not prepared to acknowledge as effective.
Phillips deploys the classic tactic of separating out her idea of "good Muslims" and "bad Muslims". This tactic will be familiar, for example used by elements of the hard left in the Labour Party, where JVL are ‘good Jews’ and JLM and pretty much the whole of the British Jewish community are "bad Jews" in their framing.
The division of "good" and "bad" Muslims is equally divisive and unhelpful here, and Phillips uses it as a "get out of gaol free" card to allow her to use divisive language and threats throughout the piece.
Islamophobia and antisemitism do not manifest in the same way, but it is appalling to state that ‘Islamophobia labels as bigotry all adverse comment about Muslims, including truths about Islamic extremism and jihadi terrorism." Islamophobia is anti-Muslim racism. The word itself might be flawed, just as antisemitism is a flawed term to describe anti-Jewish racism, but both are now commonly used. No definition or working application of Islamophobia excuses Islamist-inspired extremism or terrorism.
Ms Phillips’ comments about Islamophobia are dismissive and inaccurate of the very real racism and prejudice experienced by Muslims.
It is true that some of the anti-Muslim hate experienced in the UK and around the world is a consequence of real fear and anger following Islamist-inspired terrorist activity. HOPE not hate’s own polling showed a rise in fear of Muslims after the 2017 Manchester and Westminster terrorist attacks. The issue here is that "all Muslims" (including Ms Phillip’s "decent" ones) are being held to account for the actions of a few terrorists in the minds of the public.
Can you imagine if, after the Christchurch attack, there was a national upsurge in fear of Australian people? The reality in fact was that Tell MAMA recorded an almost 600 per cent rise in anti-Muslim hate crime in the week after the New Zealand tragedy.
I wonder if it is a coincidence that Melanie Phillips’ piece comes a few days after the annual Nisa Nashim Conference, which saw 250 Jewish and Muslim women come together from across the country, and from across the religious and cultural spectrum from both communities?
The conference gave women an opportunity to meet and chat to women they would not necessarily come across in daily life, but it also tackled real issues like antisemitism and islamophobia.
I myself gave a presentation on antisemitism, and had the opportunity to explain the history of antisemitism and how it manifests today to Muslim women, many of whom had never met a Jew before becoming involved in Nisa Nashim. Rachel Riley was another speaker, who was able to tell her personal story of engaging with the fight against antisemitism.
This year saw the launch of a campaign, #ActiveAllies, with women signing a pledging to stand up for each other’s community in the face of hate.
Phillips ends her piece by claiming that the threat from white supremacists is "vastly exceeded by the threat from the Islamic world". I find this a hugely unhelpful rabbit hole down which to disappear. It is important to oppose all extremism - from whatever quarter. We must resist the temptation of creating a hierarchy of oppressions and extremisms, which is the logic behind Phillips’ argument.
This is exactly what we condemn from those on the left who dismiss antisemitism in the Labour Party because it "pales into insignificance next to the crimes of Israel".
Wrong is wrong and not only should we call it out, but we should be prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with all those under attack, whether that is individuals or whole communities.
Jemma Levene is deputy director of Hope Not Hate
