Editing Islamophobia (section)

===Debate on the term and its limitations===
In 1996, the [[Runnymede Trust]] established the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia (CBMI), chaired by [[Gordon Conway]], the [[vice-chancellor (education)|vice-chancellor]] of the [[University of Sussex]]. The Commission's report, ''Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All'', was published in November 1997 by the Home Secretary, [[Jack Straw]]. In the Runnymede report, Islamophobia was defined as "an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination."<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last= Runnymede Trust |title=Islamophobia A Challenge For Us All - Report of the Runnymede Trust Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia |year=1997 |url= https://mcislamofobia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Islamophobia-a-challenge-for-us-all-without-cartoons-1.pdf|publisher=[[ The Runnymede Trust]]|isbn= 0-902397-98-2}}</ref><ref name="EoRE215">Encyclopedia of Race and Ethics, p. 215</ref> The introduction of the term was justified by the report's assessment that "anti-Muslim prejudice has grown so considerably and so rapidly in recent years that a new item in the vocabulary is needed".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Meer|first1=Nasar|last2=Modood|first2=Tariq|date=July 2009|title=Refutations of racism in the 'Muslim question'|journal=[[Patterns of Prejudice]]|volume=43|issue=3–4|pages=335–54|doi=10.1080/00313220903109250|s2cid=144359945}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last= Runnymede Trust |title=Islamophobia A Challenge For Us All - Report of the Runnymede Trust Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia |year=1997 |url= https://mcislamofobia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Islamophobia-a-challenge-for-us-all-without-cartoons-1.pdf|publisher=[[ The Runnymede Trust]]|isbn= 0-902397-98-2}}</ref>

In 2008, a workshop on 'Thinking Through Islamophobia' proposed a definition of Islamophobia which rejected the idea of Islamophobia as being the product of closed and open views of Islam and focused on Islamophobia as performative which problematized Muslim agency and identity. The symposium was an early attempt to bring insights from [[critical race theory]], [[postcolonial]] and [[Decoloniality|decolonial]] thought to bear on the question of Islamophobia.<ref name=Sayyid&Vakil/>

At a 2009 symposium on "Islamophobia and Religious Discrimination", Robin Richardson, a former director of the Runnymede Trust<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.runnymedetrust.org/bgRanimed.html|title=Runnymede Trust – Ranimed, Runnymede and a Long Report|access-date=18 March 2015|archive-date=25 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225130831/http://www.runnymedetrust.org/bgRanimed.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=September 2021|reason=dead link}} and the editor of ''Islamophobia: a challenge for us all'',<ref>{{cite web|date=2010|title=MCB Brings Experts and Parliamentarians Together to Discuss Islamophobia|url=http://www.mcb.org.uk/article_detail.php?article=announcement-862|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306001003/http://www.mcb.org.uk/article_detail.php?article=announcement-862|archive-date=6 March 2012|website=[[Muslim Council of Britain]]}}</ref> said that "the disadvantages of the term Islamophobia are significant" on seven different grounds, including that it implies it is merely a "severe mental illness" affecting "only a tiny minority of people"; that use of the term makes those to whom it is applied "defensive and defiant" and absolves the user of "the responsibility of trying to understand them" or trying to change their views; that it implies that hostility to Muslims is divorced from factors such as skin color, immigrant status, fear of fundamentalism, or political or economic conflicts; that it conflates prejudice against Muslims in one's own country with dislike of Muslims in countries with which the West is in conflict; that it fails to distinguish between people who are against all religion from people who dislike Islam specifically; and that the actual issue being described is hostility to Muslims, "an ethno-religious identity within European countries", rather than hostility to Islam. Nonetheless, he argued that the term is here to stay, and that it is important to define it precisely.<ref name=Richardson2009>Richardson, Robin (December 2009). {{cite web|url= http://www.insted.co.uk/anti-muslim-racism.pdf |title=Islamophobia or anti-muslim racism&nbsp;– or what? }}&nbsp;{{small|(119&nbsp;KB)}}, Insted website. Accessed 30 December 2011.</ref>

The exact definition of Islamophobia continues to be discussed, with academics such as [[Chris Allen (academic)|Chris Allen]] saying that it lacks a clear definition.<ref name=termlimits>{{cite book|author=Allen, Chris|title=Islamophobia|url=https://archive.org/details/islamophobia00alle|url-access=limited|publisher=Ashgate|year=2010|isbn=978-0754651390|page=[https://archive.org/details/islamophobia00alle/page/n29 21]|author-link=Chris Allen (academic)}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Bleich, Erik|date=December 2011|title=What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is There? Theorizing and Measuring an Emerging Comparative Concept|journal=[[American Behavioral Scientist]]|volume=55|issue=12|pages=1581–1600|doi=10.1177/0002764211409387|s2cid=143679557}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Muslims in 21st Century Europe: Structural and Cultural Perspectives|editor=Anna Triandafyllidou|year=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415497091|page=28|author=Burak Erdenir}}</ref> According to Erik Bleich, in his article "Defining and Researching Islamophobia", even when definitions are more specific, there is still significant variation in the precise formulations of Islamophobia. As with parallel concepts like homophobia or xenophobia, Islamophobia connotes a broader set of negative attitudes or emotions directed at individuals of groups because of perceived membership in a defined category.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bleich|first1=Erik|title=Defining and Researching Islamophobia|journal=Review of Middle East Studies|volume=46|issue=2|page=181}}</ref> [[Mattias Gardell]] defined Islamophobia as "socially reproduced prejudices and aversion to Islam and Muslims, as well as actions and practices that attack, exclude or discriminate against persons on the basis that they are or perceived to be Muslim and be associated with Islam".<ref name=levandedefinitioner/>{{Failed verification|date=August 2024}}