Does anyone else feel like the Islamophobia on Mumsnet has ramped up in recent days?

[ForestFawn]

There have been several faux innocent threads started which have given posters the opportunity to be open in their Islamophobia. It’s truly depressing to read.

You enjoy all the freedoms afforded to women under UK law. If you go to a country where the law is largely influenced by religion (whether Islamic, Christian, Jewish etc etc) you will find many of those rights do not exist (protected by law).

Yet you can't tell us what they are @pinkzebra02

I'm sorry if it seems like a deflection. I didn't intend it to be, I just want to highlight that there is a difference between expressing dislike of religion, and making excuses to abuse people for their religion.
Again, I condemn any abuse but I remain firm that some people, like me, dislike religion and its effects. It might be helpful to say that that doesn't mean I dislike people who are religious. I like many people, regardless of what they believe or follow. But I believe strongly that a lot of the religion in the world exclusively celebrates men and affords them mkre rights than women and homosexuals, among other groups. To me, it's toxic, and I genuinely hate to see the suffering it causes on an individual and societal level. There are ither problems in the world too, but religion seems to be one of the more needless ones, as it's based on people's beliefs which are more abstract than for example, poverty.

That part of the Iranian civil code is inconsistent with the overwhelming majority view on Islamic guidance in those areas.

And as a quick look at 'Pregnant then Screwed' would show, legal protections around pregnancy and childbirth aren't great in the UK. Statutory maternity pay isn't available for everyone, for example. The legal minimum maternity related absence from work is 2 weeks for most people. Just 2. Legal protections can have a lot of grey areas. Islamically, the bare minimum is those 40 days. And in those, there are also expectations that the woman who has given birth would not be expected to exert themselves in other areas either, as opposed to some of the many situations people post about on these boards where they're being expected to manage everything at home on top of parenting other children, looking after a newborn and recovering from childbirth.

See the above example where in Iran (a largely Islamic country), women are not protected in law from domestic violence, to name one right. In the UK, everyone is protected from domestic violence and persecutors are protected in law. That is only one example, I would read to find more but frankly it would depress me.

Iran doesn't represent Islamic law. I'm not sure why you don't understand this?

What is evil about Islam @fluffy90 ?

Do you even realise you’re on the Muslim Mumsnetters page? A board that was created to give us a safe space from Islamophobia. Where we can find solace and comfort amongst other Muslims.

Why on earth do you think it’s acceptable to come on to this board created for us to criticise us? The audacity!

I'm quite sure it does.

https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/iran/#:~:text=for%20Religious%20Freedom-,Legal%20Framework,an%20official%20interpretation%20of%20sharia.

It's not the only country governed by religion, I just used it as one example. You could argue that individuals' interpretation of religion can be different and I'm sure it is. But the laws in these countries are one of the reasons that me and many others don't like religion.

You're right, I didn't notice it was on the Muslim MN page. I saw it appear in Trending. Sorry! If I'd have noticed that I wouldn't have started discussing the difference between Islamophbia and critiquing Islam because it's not the right place to do that.

It's also Shia islam. We aren't all Shia. @pinkzebra02

There is no aha moment

I'm sure there are many intricacies of all religions which might change things slightly, but largely they are similar. Islam is similar to Christianity for example in that they both worship a male God and prohet(s), which for people like me, seems exclusive of women and grounds to oppress and dismiss them. Something we see happen in most countries where the law is heavily influenced by either of these religions.

@fluffy90 if you hate Islam, you might want to spend less time on the Muslim Mumsnetters board. This board is meant to be a safe space for Muslim posters.

I wouldn't go on to another persecuted group's supposed safe space and start posting about how much I hate them, so it might be worth reflecting on why you can't extend that courtesy to others.

God doesn't have a sex or gender for us. We also don't worship prophets. We respect and listen to their advice.

There are many women in Islam who are of extremely high regard. Please stop trying to 'catch us out'

Women in general are held in high regard

Did you know Islam has a female prophet? Maryam (pbuh)?

And a history of female scholars and leaders dating back to the very first companions of Muhammad (pbuh)?

Oh, and Shia and Sunni Islam are very different. They diverged not long after the death of Muhammad (pbuh) and have taken very different paths. Not to mention the wide differences between emerging groups with varying practices and interpretations around the world. Iranian law is pretty sh*t on women's rights and many other things. It isn't a shining example of Islamic jurisprudence. Many elements of it are rather contradictory to Islamic guidance as understood by non-Iranian-Shiism scholars.

Allah doesn't have a sex or gender. Using grammatically masculine pronouns is a linguistic thing, not a sex or gender thing.

And can I just say it is deeply disrespectful for people to be trying to deflect or minimise the Islamophobic abuse experienced by posters by making repeated efforts to attack or distract people away from this thread's actual topic.

If people have genuine curiosity about aspects of Islam and would want to ask questions in a respectful manner, surely they would have sufficient respect to do so in a separate thread. The fact that people are unwilling to do so speaks volumes about how genuine their questions are.

The thread I mentioned earlier in AIBU To think people really just don't like Muslims has been taken down now. I didn't get a chance to read it all but the OP was Muslim and created this thread to speak about the Islamophobia on the halal burger thread. It's shocking the burger one is still standing imo. Apologies if this has already been mentioned.

The burger thread is ridiculous.

The whole drama can be solved with: If you have a preference for eating or not eating food prepared in particular ways, ask before you buy and don't eat it if you don't want it.

I'd always assume school bbqs won't be halal though - even if the meat might start that way, the utensils and cross-contamination will quickly change that.

I read some of it and then I stopped. It was awful and I didnt even bother commenting as I don't think that people with such hate would change their minds. Some posters might aswell have just written "I HATE MUSLIMS" it was that blatant.

Some posters did write that! And Mumsnet was still happy for the thread to stay up all day.

@ForestFawn you're joking surely?

I’m not Muslim but was on that thread. Am I ok to join you here for a while to process the thread , and specifically the MN response to it?

If one poster here says no, then of course I’ll be on my way.

Yes, ofcourse
It truly was an awful thread but thanks to all who supported us.

Absolutely welcome!