ABSTRACT
Muslims have wrangled amongst themselves since the dawn of Islamic history over their identity as Muslims, what that means, and how it should be manifested in the world. The twenty-first century presents a world of a different character. The reality of what Muslims sometimes face in the contemporary world is often encapsulated in the word "Islamophobia." The clarification of the sense of Islamophobia is important because the word and concept have been subject to extensive critique. The manifestation of Islamophobia has been the subject of some complex legal discussions in many places in the world. The term itself may well be misleading, because its literal meaning, "fear of Islam," is not really an accurate representation of Muslim experience. Mark Steyn's argument in his book and the magazine extract is based on a (mis)perception about the nature of Islam.
