Islamophobia and liberalism. posted by Richard Seymour

On Sunday afternoon, a 48 year old Muslim man named Kamal Raza Butt was beaten to death by a gang of racist youths who called him "Taliban" before setting on him. He was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, and declared dead on arrival. He died of a brain haemhorrage.

This is just one of a series of racist attacks which the newspapers are calling "backlash" or "revenge attacks". Yes, that's right - revenge. An arson attack was carried out on a Sikh temple last weekend, and several Muslims have been assaulted. In the three days following last Thursday, 108 racist incidents were recorded by the police - and that doesn't include those created by the cops themselves. The Muslim Council of Britain has been bombarded with tens of thousands of hate e-mails . The Sun has led the charge against 'Islamic extremism' by attacking Tariq Ramadan , a Muslim academic vilified by such conspiracy theorists as Daniel Pipes, 'terrorism expert' Steven Emerson (the one who insisted that the Oklahoma building was blown up by Muslims) and Caroline Fourest. And in the far right hinterlands of football hooliganism and Hitler-worship, a series of appalling attacks is being readied. The far right would like to march along the Victoria Embankment tomorrow as well. I'd hate to see that, ahem, disrupted somehow.

I've drawn attention to some other instances of bigotry directed at Muslims recently, including the treatment of the Kamara family . But these are only instances of a more general pattern in British society. For instance, the Independent reported on Monday that:

* The UK's 1.6 million Muslims have suffered from increasing Islamophobia since 11 September, figures show. The first big survey of anti-Muslim discrimination in December revealed long-term prejudice had been "perpetuated and normalised" since the 9/11 attacks. Almost 80 per cent of Muslims felt they had been discriminated against because of their faith, a rise from 45 per cent in 2000.

* A study by York academics this year found 43 per cent of non-Muslims admitted they have become noticeably more anti-Islamic since 2001. There was a deepening of anti-Islamic sentiment after the invasion of Iraq: a quarter of young people said they were more prejudiced than before. Hatred of Muslims was particularly prevalent among boys and young men.

* Islamic representatives believe police unfairly target their community. Since 9/11, British anti-terrorist officers have arrested more than 700 people, with more than two thirds thought to be Muslim. But only one in six has been charged with terrorist offences.

Indeed, Islamophobia would appear to have become institutionalised in various ways. We don't need to rummage through the inventory of racist imagery and statements too much to find examples of this. From Kilroy-Silk to Melanie Phillips , and the egregious but obscure 'Will Cummins', the right-wing press have allowed themselves to host the most bilious Islamophobes, thereby demonstrating both a knock for self-publicity and total indifference to the fate of those vilified. In the substance of what these commentators have been allowed to say, they have mimicked Nick Griffin and legitimised his politics.

As Jeremy Seabrook has written , Islamophobia is the one prejudice that remains reputable for those who formally disavow racism. For instance, those who seem at a loss to detect anti-Muslim racism, even when it is blatant, may well share it. Like this fatuous twit , who says that the problem is Muslims failing to recognise all of the fabulous things that Labour has done for them: We liberated Kosovo. Iraq is now an "Islamic democracy". Labour has made 'enormous' rises in public spending for the poor, which will help disadvantaged Muslims. Muslims are too immersed in a "culture of grievance" to see it. Anyway, they don't know what they're talking about - what would they have done with the Taliban, eh? And Muslims are only disadvantaged because they come from Bangladesh and povo places like it. Could these ingrates be any more ungrateful? In short, the screed - by 'liberal' writer David Goodhart, famous for wheedling about the 'progrssive dilemma' created by multiculturalism - barely elevates itself above a bar room rant.

Goodhart, the editor of a coma-inducing magazine called Prospect, draws upon a far more talented, yet over-rated writer named Kenan Malik, who has argued that there is no such thing as Islamophobia on the grounds that a) there has been anti-Muslim bigotry, but it's not serious enough, b) black people get it worse anyway, c) people who talk about Islamophobia secretly want to disarm criticism of Islam, d) the police have been having more of a go at Muslims lately, but see b).

Well, you'd either have to be living in a box, congenitally purblind or maintaining yourself in a state of wilful self-delusion not to spot it. Islamophobia is not in 'competition' with other forms of racism. It is contiguous with, indeed corroborates, other kinds of racism. Precisely the same strategies are deployed. At an official level, the language created to discuss these issues is clotted with such demeaning artefacts as 'integration', 'citizenship', 'cohesion' and 'tolerance'. Instead of the focus being on social justice and human rights for all, it is shifted to a test for non-white immigrants: in order for me to tolerate you, the good liberal says, you will have to pass this citizenship test and integrate yourself properly into British society. And, often enough, precisely the same people who bang on about multiculturalism and Britain being a polyglot society will revert to this hand-wringing anxiety about 'social cohesion' being undermined by an influx of people whose values which are not sufficiently commensurable with those presently persisting in Britain - as if the values of Socialist Worker are compatible with those of Richard Branson.

At the level of casual racism, it is interesting to note just how much of this mandarin argot trickles down to ordinary discourse and commingles with the pub demotic. The more splenetic outbursts, whether in the media or on the street, replicate what was once said about black people and Jews: the insinuation of cultural backwardness, deviousness, hiding devils in their ranks, prone to criminality, getting lots of money off the state etc etc.

But the specificities of liberal Islamophobia are arresting as well. Polly Toynbee thinks that anything called the Islamic Human Rights Commission must be a contradiction in terms, and I am fairly certain I know why she thinks that. Toynbee can't understand the distinction between Islam and Islamism. Johann Hari, in recent articles, can't tell the difference between different kinds of Political Islam - although in his case, I'd make allowances for cluelessness. In other words, Islamophobes don't just see Muslims as culturally backward, they see Islam and any movement it might spawn as necessarily politically retrograde and monolithic. And the tendency by some to celebrate and congratulate 'secular' or 'apostate' Muslims (like the silly sap, Irshad Manji) reminds me of nothing so much as the Christian fundamentalist dictum about homosexuals - love the sinner, hate the sin. We nice liberals love Muslims, and wish to draw them to our breasts if only they'll recant. Anyone familiar with the Tomb will know I am an atheist and won't be arguing for theocracy any time soon, but the way in which blatant racism has been sold under the guise of secularism - for instance, the French hijab ban, is enough to make me deeply sceptical of anyone who fetishises secularism, particularly when they do so especially for Muslims.