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A few thoughts on the Trevor Phillips controversy. I’m in two minds as to whether to post this on Twitter as the very nature of Twitter discussions serves only to exacerbate the polarised character of the debate, and erase nuance. But here goes (and it may be a long thread). 1/
As in many of these controversies, it’s become a case of taking sides and of portraying @TrevorPTweets as either hero or villain. I see him as neither. Though simply to say that is these days often to invite denunciation from both sides. 2/
Phillips is not a racist in any meaningful sense. From the outside, the Labour Party’s action, and the timing, seem as much about internal debates as about Phillips’ views. 3/
Nevertheless, many of Phillips’ views about Islam and Muslims are dubious. The controversy reveals as much about difficulties people have in thinking about both Islam & Islamophobia, and more generally about group identity, as about Phillips. 4/
Like Phillips, I've questioned the concept of Islamophobia as one that conflates bigotry against Muslims and criticism of Islam. This does not mean, as some have implied, that I think anti-Muslim bigotry does not exist. On the contrary. 5/
I’ve set out my views on this before: kenanmalik.com/2017/11/15/ret… kenanmalik.com/2013/11/14/whe… 6/
Like Phillips, I am a believer in free speech. Phillips is chair of @IndexCensorship. I used to be on the board, and still firmly support the organization and its campaigns. 7/
However, I also fundamentally disagree with Phillips’ understanding of ‘racism’ and his characterisation of Muslims. A couple of articles on my disagreements with Phillips’ arguments about Islam:
kenanmalik.com/2016/05/15/bey… kenanmalik.com/2016/04/12/so-… 8/
I should not need to say this, but it seems necessary to these days: To support free speech is not to refrain from criticising or condemning what might be said. To defend free speech is not the same as being indifferent to, or neutral about, what is being said. 9/
Phillips’ claim that one cannot be racist against Muslims because Muslims don’t constitute a ‘race’ and because Islam is a ‘multiracial’ faith is bunk.10/
Jews don’t constitute a ‘race’, and Judaism is a multiracial faith. That doesn’t mean that there is no racism against Jews. The Irish are not a race. But there certainly exists anti-Irish racism. And that’s true of many other groups. 11/
The characteristics of being a ‘race’ can be imposed upon any social group. Races are socially constituted and it is through the way that society defines a group and relates to it that racism expresses itself. 12/
The Irish and Jews were once thought to be races (and some still believe them to be). Muslims are not a race but it is certainly possible to be racist towards Muslims. 13/
The second issue on which we fundamentally disagree is Phillips’ view that Muslims ‘see the world differently from the rest of us’. 14/
In one sense, it’s a trite observation. Football fans see the world differently from those who are not football fans – we love the beautiful game, others can’t see the point. 15/
But the idea that Muslims ‘see the world differently’ is used to convey something more profound & dangerous. That Muslims form a homogenous group distinct from the rest of society, all possessing a similar set of views, and ‘resistant to… integration’. 16/
I’ve tackled the arguments that Muslims form a homogenous group, that ‘they don’t want to change’, that ‘their ancestral backgrounds’ is a sufficient explanation of the social conservatism of many sections of Muslim communities… 17/
…that they don’t have an attachment to Britain, that they are more sympathetic to terrorism than the general public, and the flawed use of poll data, in the articles I linked to before: kenanmalik.com/2016/05/15/bey… kenanmalik.com/2016/04/12/so-… 18/
The idea of Muslims as forming a homogenous reactionary group has certainly been exploited by racists and anti-Muslim bigots. It is also, however, a thread in the arguments of many liberal multiculturalists: kenanmalik.com/2014/10/16/wha… kenanmalik.com/2015/09/26/on-… 19/
These notions of groups and of group identity, and the tendency to relate to individuals primarily by virtue of the group to which they are imputed to belong, have become deeply ingrained, and not just among racists and reactionaries, but on the left as much as on the right. 20/
So, while I have fundamental disagreements with Phillips’ view of Islam, and think those views need to be challenged, the debate is also more complex than one that can be settled, or even taken forward, by simply labelling someone ‘racist’ or ‘Islamophobe’. 21/
There are many straightforward racists and bigots, and many who are straightforwardly bigoted towards Muslims. For all my disagreements with him, it would be ludicrous to label Phillips as one of them. 22/
To claim that Phillips is a bigot is, in my view, both to diminish the meaning of bigotry and to constrain the debate we need on these ideas that exist not just among racists. 23/
And, with that, I might take the evening off Twitter :-)
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