There are many reasonable people who believe, as I do, that it is wrong to harm those individuals who are Muslim or to unfairly discriminate against Muslims in things like employment and education. There are also many who recognise that there are paths within Islam, such as the Ahmediyya and the Aga Khan’s branch of the Ismailis, that are not problematic unlike some other paths within Sunni or Shia Islam.

However that doesn’t mean that said reasonable people don’t have a problem with the word ‘Islamophobia’, they do. Many people see the word ‘Islamophobia’ in the same way that the late Christopher Hitchens did when he described it as a word ‘created by fascists and used by cowards in order to manipulate morons’. This is because this word has increasingly been use to suppress comment, debate and the sometimes justifiable criticism of Islam the ideology.

The phrase ‘you are an Islamophobe’ is used far too often and notably by those who cleave to more uncompromising forms of Islam, in order shut down what might be reasonable criticisms of Islamic theology, culture and practise. It has become another of those snarl words used by authoritarians to close down debate just as the words ‘fascist’, ‘racist’, ‘hate-monger’ and ‘transphobe’ have been used.

Therefore I was disturbed to see senior Labour Party politicians deciding to get behind something called ‘Islamophobia Awareness Week’. Surely the Party must know that there are valid and genuine criticisms about this word, its origin and its use? Maybe they did and just ignored the concerns about this word and its usage and did so in a cynical attempt to appeal to a Muslim community that has become in many areas Labour’s core vote. Here’s what Angela Rayner had to say on this issue.

It is quite possible to be against the idea of treating decent individual Muslims like dirt whilst still being opposed to this dishonest and troublesome word although this is something that Labour don’t seem to have realised. Labour are wedded to the idea of identity politics and this looks to me just another example of Labour jumping on yet another identity politics bandwagon. Labour don’t seem to realise that treating Muslim individuals as individuals does not clash with criticising the ideology of Islam.

If Labour thought that making a big thing about ‘Islamophobia’ week was a good way to attract votes from those who are already suspicious about the party and its intentions, then they’ve made a massive error. All this does is show the people that Labour haven’t changed. They still see people as members of groups rather than as individuals and are still pandering to groups in order to get these groups to vote for them. I don’t think that this sort of grandstanding will do anything to attract back to Labour those working class votes from both Black and White Britons who have abandoned them at recent General Elections.