to ask why people still do not believe that Islamophobia doesn’t exist and therefore doesn’t need an official definition?

Well, of course I don't support women not having a choice. Where that is happening, it definitely needs to be tackled. Just as all forms of misogyny and coercive control in our society need to be tackled.

But not all Muslim women are oppressed and being forced to wear the hijab. Many want to. I have one Muslim friend who chooses to wear it in spite of the protestations from her Muslim husband and Muslim father who worry that it will make her a target for racists. Do you want her choice to be taken away? Why does it bother you that she wants to wear a headscarf?

They seem to manage it in France.

So you want the state to control what women wear. Who should be tasked with deciding what is and isn't suitable attire, I wonder? Will it be MPs, of which the majority are currently male?

Seems like you might have more in common with the Taliban than you thought...

Yes. I wish they'd not allow people to wear indecent clothes showing arse cheeks hanging out the back of shorts either.

Both - burqa or highly sexualised clothing is built around the needs and desires of men in the prevailing culture.

And many Muslim women don't feel they have a choice. There is a huge amount of pressure on them to conform and wear hijab, with many threats or actual violence to women who don't conform. The same way that forced marriage or FGM is, apparently, illegal in the UK but still goes ahead. And, yes, I do realise that those are found in other cultures / religions. Men make the rules, it's still the case. Religion, all types, were founded, thought up by men, they made the rules.

No, I support individual women making choices about what they wear.

I know lots of Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab and lots that don't. I think it's right that all should be able to decide for themselves.

But then is that not our job to include Muslims and make activities for all
i.e in work places, schools etc, make sure any party or celebration is including those of different religion/race/culture
I can’t imagine it’s encouraging for Muslims who want to integrate if they feel left out of everything

Do you support religions telling women what to wear?

You support the state dictating what women can and can't wear?

This is an extremely helpful post. I have Muslim colleagues who I consider friends. Varying degrees of observance and some drink, some don’t. One used to join everyone for after work drinks and enjoyed virgin pornstar martinis.

But I am fearful of Islamic extremists and it’s unclear where extremism begins. I wouldn’t consider the 3 Islamic organisations who sued Charlie Hebdo in 2006 to be in anyway extremist but think their actions in the name is Islam encouraged more extreme reactions. France values its culture of free speech, who are they to challenge that in any name?

Any other items of clothing you would like to ban?

face/head coverings - do you want to ban hats? glasses, sunglasses?

There is a perception that many Muslims haven’t done anything like as much as Hindus and Sikhs to integrate and instead want to change the country to their ideology and culture rather than largely accept a largely tolerant liberal country. I am inclined to agree, unless that changes we will always have problems.

You can't make laws against Islamophobia without making legitimate criticism of Islam illegal as well, as the line would be impossible to draw.

We already have laws against attacking people or property, and inciting people to attack people or property.

We do not need extra laws to make criticism of fairy stories illegal.

I hate all religion and my right to do so is also protected in law, banning Islamophobia would infringe on my rights, and would not be a progressive move.

I want to criticise people who bomb concerts, buses and tube trains. I want to criticise people who abused Jess Phillips(even though I dislike her politics) at her vote count. I want to criticise people who force teachers into hiding. I want to criticise people who send death threats to autistic children and their mother. Just as I want to criticise Catholic paedophiles, and Jewish supporters of genocide in Gaza.

Islam is a religion, it deserves no more protection in law than Alice in Wonderland, same for any other religion.

I do believe all face/head coverings should be banned in the UK.

It also bothers me to see women and their daughters in full black swim wear that they must be boiling in, when their husbands and sons are there in a pair of shorts.

That is something I am strongly against.

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you. 💐

Some areas are of course worse than others, no-one is denying that and whilst what’s happened to you is inexcusable, it’s still a minority group of people. The majority of people do not behave like that towards others. Thats my point which you seem to have missed. If the majority of people were intolerant then you’d be experiencing these issues every day, all day long. Most people would condemn these actions of these people. That’s my point. Most people just want to get on with living their lives in peace and don’t care about other folks race, religion, appearance, etc. And if you look at the laws in their country, they are definitely trying to be progressive and to protect minorities. Hate crime laws, equality laws, etc. if you’d been able to identify and have these people who assaulted you arrested, then they would’ve been prosecuted because what they did was a crime and we do not tolerate that in the UK.

They are extremist illegal terrorist organisations, there has been many over the decades from all walks of life not sure what point you are trying to make? or was your statement meant to be directed at a poster that you may have forgotten to tag?

Unfortunately, in both the Muslim and non-Muslim community this isn't the case.

Yesterday I took my daughters to a park which is outside of the area I live and in a majority white British community.

Two boys threw water bottles at me whilst I was leaving. I wear hijab so it's obvious I'm Muslim. They couldn't have been older than 11 or 12.

Honestly I was lost for words as I have never been a victim of discrimination or racism in my life.

Whether that incident was related to the murders or not, I don't know.

But as we've already seen far right groups are focusing on the attackers more than the victims themselves.

The poster who mentioned the IRA and pointed out that all Catholics did not feel the need to apologise for the IRA's acts has a great point.
By coalescing into a single, identified, named organisation, the IRA (not "Catholics") became the people blamed for those acts.

That is not quite accurate, Irish people (not Catholics) were blamed and treated badly during the IRA campaign in the 70s and 80s, but they didn't look "Irish" they were white so weren't so easily identified. My aunt worked as a nurse in England she put on an English accent when on the bus and out in public because otherwise she would have been shouted at and verbally abused and she was scared. I still remember being in pub in London in the early noughties and having a group of drunk men crowding around me and screaming and shouting at me for all the trauma and disruption I had caused them living in London during their childhoods because of the IRA.

I do feel for Muslim people, no one should be scared or abused because of their faith or blamed for the actions of others, respect, tolerance and dignity would go a long way.

Who gets to judge what constitutes "properly Islamic"?

The notion that Saudi Arabia "isn't properly Islamic" is such a ridiculous argument but it's advanced all the time.

It's such a cheap attempt to avoid confronting some hard truths.

Why would you try to insinuate that the OP doesn't care about the three little girls that were so tragically killed?

Has it not occurred to you that the OP might be horrified by the murder of three young children and concerned about threats to her own community if the perpetrator had turned out to be Muslim? As we have seen, Muslims were targeted because of assumptions that the perpetrator was Muslim even when this was based on deliberate misinformation, so her fears seem pretty legitimate to me.

I wonder what your agenda was in this post? Were you trying to suggest that Muslim people wouldn't be upset about the murders of three innocent children? Or are you just so incredibly stupid that you are incapable of holding more than one thought in your mind at any one time, and you therefore assume that others can't do that either?

Well ISIS, ISIL and Daesh all mean Islamic state. So I think we can safely say they are Muslim.

Where did OP say she wants blasphemy laws for Islam? What I saw was a definition for Islamophobia actually is.