is there anything wrong with being islamaphobic?

[Wintersnow]

In the sense someone is predjudice against the religion itself ( e.g. the second class citizen treatment of women in general and terrible human rights records in most muslim countries) and not that they hate the muslim people? Just curious...

If all you know about something is the name or what colour it is and you hate it then that is prejudice.

If (as I do) you think Islam/Christianity etc is bad for people or society than that is an opinion which is fine. I could be right or I could be wrong, but am entitled to my opinion.

Of course lots of people who ARE religious will attempt to call that prejudice because they don't think other people should be allowed to have an opinion.

In answer to the OP, Yes.
Having issues with aspects of a religeon/belief is one thing, but the fact you need to call it "Islamophobia" speaks volumes to me.

'islamaphobia' is a word used a lot in the media, Salman Rushdie was also accused of it so I think it was used by OP for want of a better word - did someone say islamism?

"Your question is offensive, ignorant, racist and your post is ill informed"
For disliking aspects of a religion? I disagree

The word "Islamophobia" was coined by a 2000 government report into prejudice against Islam. The authors chose to use this word because they felt that (as with homophobia and xenophobia) that the prejudice was based primarily on fear, perhaps of the unknown.

Just in case you're interested

jinglesticks
Thank you, that is interesting.

I think that disliking aspects of a religion would not come under the heading of Islamophobia. It says in the Qur'an "the man and woman guilty of adultery should be flogged with 100 lashes". I dislike and disagree with this. I don't think this makes me Islamophobic. (The Qur'an also says many beautiful and profound things which I love and agree with)

(Can I add that the Bible and Torah both prescribe stoning to death for adulterers, just to give some perspective)

Well in theory you could survive 100 lashes. 250 is considered by the Qur'an to be the equivalent of a death sentence. What I meant, by adding the second post, is that just as the majority of Christians and Jews today would find the idea of stoning adulterers (or anyone) to death absolutely abhorrent, most Muslims would be similarly opposed to actually flogging anyone. Most of the Holy Books contain parts which modern followers ignore and/or are ashamed of. So just as I dislike this aspect of the Qur'an, I expect many Muslims feel uneasy about it too.

My understanding is that "islamophobia" is primarily used to mean "fear and dislike of Muslims", just like xenophobia is fear & dislike of strangers and homophobia is fear & dislike of gay people.

Disliking a religion on an intellectual level is not what Islamophobia denotes.

As others have said, phobia is "an irrational fear.

Given that the vast majority of Muslim countries don't stone anybody, I would say you are correct - most Muslims do not agree with stoning as a punishment.

I suppose then the OP's question is whether it is acceptable to dislike the whole Islamic religion (rather than just aspects of it) on an intellectual level.

If so, she doesn't understand the word "Islamophobia".

Of course it is OK to dislike anything on an intellectual level. What is not OK is to dislike all Muslims, just like anti-Semitism is not OK.

LittleMiss - I agree with what you have said but I have to point out that it is "per se", not "persay". Sorry

Islamaphobia is a word used pretty freely in the media so it stands to reason that people (namely OP) will misunderstand/misuse it

I think the idea that there is some kind of 'true' version of Islam or Christianity that is got wrong by human culture is a belief that only makes sense if you are religious and believe in the inerrancy of a religious text.

For everyone else, the cultural expression of a religion is the religion. In which case, it makes no sense to dislike Islam because it is so wide and varied and expressed in so many different ways that you would have to be hugely intolerant to dislike all of it.

I think it's unfair to say that the OPs question is 'offensive, ignorant, racist'. She may be ignorant of the correct use of islamophobic for the reason lollypoplady states but unless people ask how will they become better educated?

Cote, thanks, I realised that when I hit post. my spell check normally picks that up.

I'm not sure if it possible to be intellectually opposed to a whole religion, because a religion is such an abstract thing. There are as many versions of a particular religion as there are adherents to that religion. Obviously you can dislike and disagree with aspects and beliefs, but to dislike a religion as a whole is a massive generalisation.

I am intellectually opposed to all religion. It can be done.

Same as CoteDAzur

I know I am a good person. I neither want or need a religion.