Our slogan has caused some controversy and maybe some misunderstanding even among a number of our supporters.

No doubt this is due in part to differences in language (certainly) and interpretations between the various countries.

So SIOE offers an explanation.

Let’s look at the slogan.

“Racism is the lowest form of stupidity! Islamophobia is the height of common sense!”

The first part is self-explanatory, but why was it included?  Well this was to separate racism from the second part of the motto which refers to Islamophobia.

Racism is not Islamophobia! However, Islamists, politicians and media have tried to equate the two.  SIOE is having none of that!  Islamophobia is nowhere near as bad as racism.  Genes are not the same as doctrine.  A person cannot change his/her genes, but they can leave Islam and become an Islamophobe – tens of thousands do each year.

When, for example, an Arab leaves Islam because he hates and fears it, he doesn’t suddenly become a racist because of it.  This is also true for any ex-muslim and the same is true for anyone who has never been a muslim.

Let’s look at what Islamophobia actually IS, not what it means.

Islamophobia is just a verbal hammer with which to beat people into submission so that they shut up.

Well SIOE is taking the hammer and swinging it right back at those politicians, Islamists and media people who want to silence ordinary people who dislike, yes even hate Islam.

SIOE didn’t invent the word Islamophobia and there is some debate as to where it originated. Some say George Bush invented it (when all else fails blame George Bush), some say it was Islamists.

Whoever first used the word “Islamophobia” there is no doubt that both Islamists, politicians and the media have adopted it with real enthusiasm and use it to bash people who complain about encroaching Islamism and Sharia by stealth.

Islamophobia does not have to mean anything - it is just a tool to suppress opposition to Islamisation.

Well SIOE refuses to be beaten into submission with a stupid word like “Islamophobia” and stupid is what it is.  Anybody with any sense would have coined the expression “muslimophobia” because this would have had some merit in that it actually refers to people, at least, and not a belief or doctrine, which is what Islam is.

Indeed since SIOE proudly proclaimed “Islamophobia is the height of common sense” it has become noticeable that the “Islamophobia is not Muslimophobia” argument has become increasingly used.

SIOE’s motto has put our adversaries and critics on the back foot.

However, let’s take a look at what Islamophobia actually means because some have criticised its use by SIOE.

Taken literally Islamophobia means an irrational fear of Islam.  Critics have said that fearing Islam is not irrational, but it is a considered and deliberate reaction to an oppressive political regime.

SIOE agrees with this, which is why SIOE’s motto says “Islamophobia is the height of common sense”. 

Islamophobia is possibly unique where an irrational fear is simultaneously common sense. 

Anyway, the term “phobia” has also become used as loosely as “racism”.  Racism is now a catch-all accusation levelled at somebody who criticises or blames another group of people to which the accuser does not belong.

Such widespread usage has so cheapened an accusation of racism as to render it almost worthless.

In a similar way “phobia” has become to mean a “fear or loathing” of something not just an “irrational fear”.

For example, someone watching astronauts doing a passable impersonation of shooting stars as they re-enter the earth’s atmosphere might develop an incurable case of strap-your-arse-to-a-space-shuttle-ophobia.  Would this be an irrational fear or a rational fear based on irrefutable observation?

Let’s, for the sake of argument, accept that Islamophobia is indeed an irrational fear of Islam.  Does that mean it should be a crime?

Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders, some say it is an irrational fear.  However, arachnophobia is not a criminal offence.

Freddy Thielemans, the ridiculous Brussels Mayor, undoubtedly has a case of Christianophobia, as amply demonstrated by his reportedly toasting the death of the Pope and buying champagne for customers in a restaurant to celebrate.

At worst he showed bad taste, but few would argue his actions should be a crime.

However, moves are being made through the discredited United Nations to make Islamophobia a crime.  Naturally, this is being promoted by Islamic countries.

SIOE is countering this with a Kuffarphobia petition which it intends to be submitted to the United Nations to counter the Islamophobia petition.

From its outset SIOE was intended to be an organisation for action and one which uses the Islamist language right back at them.

“Islamophobia” was designed to put non-muslims on the defensive, well SIOE refuses to be on the defensive and we are shoving Islamophobia down the necks of those who shout it as a weapon to silence people who wish to stop Islamisation.

SIOE does not compromise or appease.  SIOE fights like-with-like because SIOE believes in what it is fighting for.

SIOE’s motto was intended to wrong-foot Islamists, politicians and media and it has done just that.  SIOE cannot be called racist because we openly denounce racism – and we mean it.

SIOE is not afraid to be called Islamophobic because Islamophobia does not exist. 

As our French colleagues say “By this slogan, SIOE wants to stress that ‘islamophobia’ is a word without significance, a neologism that is deliberately ambiguous, a word created and used as a weapon in order to prohibit criticism of Islam, while simultaneously trying to make ‘islamophobia’ pass for an incentive to hatred of muslim people and for racism which it is not at all.”

Many of our supporters do not like the word Islamophobia because they say they do not fear Islam at all.  Instead they despise it and reject it.  Yes indeed.

SIOE does not fear Islam – it simply rejects Islam!