Some might say that trying to define ‘Islamophobia’ is a foolish enterprise, given that words these days are so wantonly manipulated. Yet this hasn’t stopped Labour from trying. In 2018, the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims called for the following definition to be adopted by the government: ‘Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’. Now it has been reported that ministers are finalising a new wording which defines it more simply as ‘anti-Muslim hostility’.

In our hypersensitive times, ‘hostility’ is likely to mean anything offence-seekers want it to be

It could be argued that this definition is an improvement, given the wide scope of the previous definition and its implicit conflation of Islam the religion with Muslims as people. It’s that muddled overlap that led many to fear ‘Islamophobia’ was set to be deployed surreptitiously in order to reintroduce blasphemy laws into this country. The conviction (since appealed) earlier this year of Hamit Coskun – who had been found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence after burning a copy of the Koran – did nothing to........

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