Defining Islamophobia

[KAding]

I want to have a discussion about 'Islamophobia'. I want to know how we define it. What does it imply exactly?

From another thread:
http://www.islamicboard.com/world-af...qur-ban-6.html

Agreed. In fact, if we define Islam as being the Sharia then 99% of politicians would be against. Pretty much everyone sees the Sharia as a threat and would resist it. I wouldn't define that as Islamophobia though, it is only natural for non-Muslims not to want the sharia.

And lets be honest here, there are plenty of Muslims who are just as afraid of Western influences in their societies. It's simply a natural reaction, a desire to protect your own culture and heritage.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean by this. How is seeing the Shariah as a threat not Islamophobia?

Does opposition to the Sharia make someone an Islamophobe? What makes an Islamophobe?

Say you have a nice Islamic country, with full implementation of the Sharia. Then Westerns immigrants come and want to implement secular Western law. Surely that is a threat to Sharia law, no? That would upset many Muslims, no? Would these Muslims be 'Westernophobes', 'Secularophobes', 'Christianophobes'?

The absolute majority in West is opposed to the implementation of Sharia law in the West. Simple. Non-Muslims will almost by definition disagree with Sharia law, simply because they don't believe that Sharia law is Gods law. Sharia law on many points contradicts Western law. Implementing sharia law by definition means abolishing secular laws and vise-versa. They simply cannot coexist in the majority of cases. How could any non-Muslim in the West not view Sharia law as a threat?

If that makes me an Islamophobe, so be it. But then you have to accept that that makes anyone who does not want secular law in Muslim lands and wants to implement the Sharia a Westernophobe/Secularophobe/Rule-of-men-o-phobe/Democratic-rule-o-phobe :D.

So I ask, what makes someone an Islamophobe? Does disagreeing with the basic tenets of Islam make someone an Islamophobe? In which case seeing the Sharia as a threat would make you Islamophobe. Or is it really just about hating Muslims? In which case seeing the Sharia as a threat does not necessarily make you an Islamophobe.