𝓝𝓪𝓽𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓮 𝓦𝔂𝓷𝓷  💎

I spent my late teenage years lovingly reading thousands of pages of Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens. I know their major arguments by heart.

You likely cannot quote me a vile passage of Quran or hadith that I haven't heard before.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Islam as a political/social/moral belief system.

And I am well aware that I would be dead in five minutes in Syria right now.

However, it is actually possible to form political beliefs on the basis of something more sophisticated than reflexive, egocentric fear.

I can easily see through attempts to manipulate my fears into hatred and suspicion of minority communities.

Level-headed progressives can see that standing up against xenophobic sentiment doesn't make you an alibi for some sinister Islamist agenda.

And the implication that solidarity with Western Muslims = pro-Islamist apologia is sleight-of-hand in the service of bigotry.