Jeff Goldblum is being criticised for asking whether Islam is anti-gay and anti-women. See e.g. this article in The Independent. Stats suggest e.g. the Muslim population in the UK for example does have a problem with homophobia (according to a survey a third of all UK Muslims think a wife should be forced to obey her husband, and 0% of UK Muslims think homosexuality is acceptable). And certainly that religion traditionally does (but then so does Christianity). At the same time I think Islamophobia is real and pernicious and probably much m ore of a problem than e.g. antisemitism in the UK (again, surveys bear this out). Perhaps we simply shouldn't ask such questions about Islam for fear of stoking such prejudice. On the other hand, perhaps liberals self-censoring - deliberately avoiding mentioning such facts or asking such questions - actually stokes Islamophobia by, in effect, stifling free speech re Islam and also feeding the 'double standard' narrative
Stephen Law is a philosopher and author. Currently Director of Philosophy and Cert HE at Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. Stephen has also published many popular books including The Philosophy Gym, The Complete Philosophy Files, and Believing Bullshit. For school talks/ media: stephenlaw4schools.blogspot.co.uk Email: think-AT-royalinstitutephilosophy.org