A definition is not a magic spell, though it can do useful work. Politicians could have got on with doing that work using the definition we already have if they really wanted to counter Islamophobia.

We have a good enough definition of Islamophobia already, defining Islamophobia is not the issue. The issue is continuously going on and on about how complex it is and convening more and more groups to re-define it in an endless loop rather than actually working to counter it.

I think that this new working group is a deliberate attempt to roll back the work we have all been doing to understand the systemic, political, ontological, historiographical etc ways that Islamophobia manifests. I think we risk the same move following for other racisms too.

Someone who sees a demonstration against genocide as a threat doesn’t necessarily hate all Muslims, there may be Muslims (eg “moderate” / “liberal” / “apolitical” Muslims etc) who they like. But however many Muslims they don’t hate, they still perceive that threat because of Islamophobia.

It will put back decades of work on racism, and it will also make eg the Islamophobic persecution of pro-Palestinian voices easier because it will make the very obvious structural operations of Islamophobia harder to demonstrate.

with thanks to IHRC @ihrc.bsky.social and Arzu Merali @arzumerali.bsky.social for their comments