It's not a phobia if the fear is real

The problem with Islamophobia

Most legal systems in Western Countries use the ‘reasonable person standard’¹. The reasonable person standard or test, is a benchmark of behaviour for determining whether something is reasonable or not. The idea of a reasonable person is a made-up concept used to help apply the law consistently. The standard however, expects that the average person can define what is and isn’t reasonable. And I’m not sure we can assume that anymore.

It would seem reasonable to me that average person would have a basic understanding of the meaning of words — that definitions are key, and presenting something as a ‘fact’ would require more evidence than ‘it’s just my opinion’. Words seem to have lost their value. Rape is now equal to resistance, genocide equals war casualty, and coloniser and oppressor can only be applied to white people. Sorry Oxford Dictionary, the progressives have spoken!

Which brings us to the term “Islamophobia” which has spread like wildfire, not just into the language of popular culture, but has infiltrated our educational institutes, politics and even into governmental policy. But what exactly is a phobia?