Islam and its people are hated by those who hate the truth because it is the truth, or they are hated by the ignorant who don’t understand what it is. The “Islamophobia” concept pretends that Islam’s truth or falsehood is irrelevant.

Moreover, if someone someone hates Islam or Muslims, whether out of knowledge of Islam’s truth or ignorance of what Islam is, that in itself does not preclude him or her from living in a just and neighborly way alongside Muslims.

There are various reasons why someone would be ignorant of Islam & Muslims & thus dislike them. One is non-Muslims knowingly or unknowingly propagating falsehoods; another is Muslims themselves: by living a bad example, or spreading falsehood through ignorance or heresy.

The Islamophobia concept re-imagines Muslim as an “identity,” a category to which belief (much less the truth or falsehood of which belief) is irrelevant, an identity parallel to other identities such as those based on ethnicity, sexual proclivities, disability, even obesity.

Because these identities are of the same nature and parallel, none are necessarily more essential than another, & so in the contemporary imagination, these identities can overlap in individuals like color filters, creating hybrid identities.

This reflects the reflexive nature of modernity, that is, the autonomous individual’s ability to create or modify his or her identity at will, and one way of doing so is adding or subtracting, or emphasizing or de-emphasizing, identities.

Again, the Islamophobia concept presumes & incorporates this feature of modernity. This is why “Muslim” is often linked with, eg, “trans” or “Latino” in the same sentence. These are all “identities.” And it’s why the Islamophobia concept assumes all “phobias” are equally noxious

This is why it is intelligible in the modern imagination when Ilhan Omar says “I’m not here to constantly explain or defend my identity,” or that Trump wants “to use my identity to marginalize our communities.” Religious beliefs are no essential part of modern identities. End.