There’s a nuanced discussion of one of our favorite topics: Islamophobia, by Massimo Pigliucci on the website Scientia Salon.

One snippet: “While the statistics on international terrorism are complex and can be read in a number of ways, there is little doubt even in the mind of sympathetic commentators like CNN’s Fared Zakaria that contemporary Islam does have a problem with violence and oppression (especially of women and gays).”

And another: “simply pointing out that Islamic ideas play a role in contemporary terrorism and repression does not make one a Islamophobe, and using the label blindly is simply an undemocratic, and unreflective, way of cutting off critical discourse.”

Read the whole essay here.