The UK government has published more details about a working group set up to advise it on a possible definition of Islamophobia which would also protect the right to “insult” religious beliefs and practices.

The membership of the working group appears to signal that the government is engaging with the recently launched British Muslim Network (BMN), but not the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) - the largest umbrella body claiming to represent British Muslims.

Dominic Grieve, a former Conservative attorney general, has been appointed chair of the group with BMN co-chair Akeela Ahmed among its four other members.

Ahmed’s inclusion in the working group comes just weeks after the official launch of the BMN in February with backing from faith minister Khan, and after Middle East Eye had previously revealed it had lost much of its Muslim support and was being backed by a charity set up by disgraced former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

        • @MouldyCat@feddit.uk
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          -24 days ago

          You’re beginning to sound like a bit of a conspiracy nut. Are you muslim? You’d have to be kind of nuts to think that a guy who heard voices in his head was genuinely talking to a real live Jewish angel rather than just suffering from untreated mental illness!

            • @MouldyCat@feddit.uk
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              04 days ago

              That’s why I asked if you were muslim. Are you? If you are, you should know that the islamic religion was started by some guy in the desert who heard voices in his head, and he thought the voices belonged to a Jewish angel.

              That’s not very special - go to any mental care ward in any modern city, and you’ll find plenty of schizophrenics saying very similar things. What makes Mohammed special was not the voices in his head, but that he managed to convince other people that he really was talking to this magical flying Jew (who was conveniently enough completely invisible and could only be heard by Mohammed), and they should follow him and do whatever he said.

              So my point is that anyone in the modern world who believes a story like the Mohammed story has already taken leave of their senses, and it would be no surprise if it turned out they believed all sorts of other conspiracy theories, like 911 was faked, or the moon landings were faked, or the muslim rape gangs were faked.

                • @MouldyCat@feddit.uk
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                  -14 days ago

                  what’s islamophobic about what I said? Everything I said is undeniably true isn’t it?

                  Do you think people shouldn’t be allowed to point out uncomfortable truths about your religion?

                  • @geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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                    14 days ago

                    You dismissed the Muslim rape gang hoax by calling it a “conspiracy theory” and the rest of your comments is crusader displaying. It would help if you were able to engage with facts instead of trying to pivot to hate speech.

    • @forrgott@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      Eh, I think it’s much more an issue of the use of the word “Islamaphobia” being missed after how “antisemitism” is used to shut down discussion or criticism. But to do you. Or whatever, I don’t fucking care

      • Flax
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        34 days ago

        Yep. I’m not saying that irrational hatred towards individual muslims on the basis of their faith is okay. It isn’t, and it is irrational. But whenever you get the likes of David Wood (Christian apologist and critic of Islam. Has NEVER called for violence or attacks on Muslims themselves) being banned from the UK or Thaddeus Billman in the USA being fired from his job for being “islamophobic”, that’s just ridiculous.

      • @geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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        -24 days ago

        Antisemitism is applied to scensarios where no antisemitism is present. Islamophobia is well accepted and promoted by the most mainstream of media sources.

    • Flax
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      04 days ago

      I, personally have seen more antisemitism than hatred towards Muslims

      • @Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
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        34 days ago

        It’s hard to know anymore if people are talking about real antisemitism or just not liking Israeli politicial/military actions

        • Flax
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          24 days ago

          I’ve seen people mainly say things like “(((them)))” and “the 👃”