88human race— has to deal with the implications of
our failure to fi x this question. We Muslims must
get used to the fact that people will criticize our re-
ligion, just as we criticize everyone else’s religion
for not being “true.” Some people will choose to
leave the faith, and we Muslims will need to come
to terms with this, and to understand how to treat
ex- Muslims not just with civility but with the ut-
most res pect. Critiquing Islam, critiquing any
idea, is not bigotry. “Islamophobia” is a troubled
and inherently unhelpful term. Yes, hatred of Mus-
lims by neo- Nazi-style groups does exist, and it is a
form of cultural intolerance, but that must never
be confl ated with the free- speech right to cri-
tique Islam. Islam is, after all, an idea; we cannot
expect its merits or demerits to be accepted if we
cannot openly debate it. So I’m not one to try to
avoid these issues. We have to address them
head-on.
Another tragedy that occurred while we were
locked in this dialogue was the terrible jihadist
terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo offi ces in
Paris, France. This attack brings to the fore the
importance of distinguishing between critiquing
an idea and inciting hate crime against a specifi c
cultural grouping of people.
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