I don't fear books or religions
But you are bothered by something comparatively so minor as a "Islamophobia" that may not even exist?
Religions can and should be feared when they teach people to engage in destructive behavior. That is true even if we take for granted that such justification is by definition an abuse and misinterpretation of the doctrine.
The problem I have with Islam is not so much with the doctrine itself as with its sore lack of means for learning better and internally adjusting the behavior and expectations of its own worst impulses.
To the best of my knowledge, very few Muslims feel both capable and interested in doing anything about the quality of practice of their own religion, and it shows.
It is apparently far easier for a Muslim to solve any issues with his faith or that of his community by leaving the religion altogether than by proposing internal measures or adjustments to the practice. Tradition has become much too decisive, questioning too undesired. Even for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man it is seems to be more practical for her to become a Christian herself, apparently because Muslim cultures tend to just not have the means to handle the marriage of a Christian man to one of their own women.
While it is premature to say outright that this happens because the idea of trusting God has run amok to entirely unrealistic and unhealthy levels in the Islamic world and the adherents have so far failed to allow themselves to do anything of practical effectiveness about that, it is very difficult to deny it either.
and I see no reason to fear most Muslims
I don't fear most Muslims either.
That is a good thing, too. I'm not prepared to fear about one billion people, which is what would constitute
most Muslims.
I do however fear what their rather unadapting religion might lead them to do when given just a little ambiguity or questionable motivation. Saying that those who end up misguided are almost certainly not true Muslims and will end up being judged accordingly by God in the afterlife would not be an adequate response even if I believed in it.
Somehow I suspect that just by saying so I will be perceived as hopelessly Islamophobic by some. But there is really no alternative I can speak of. If I must choose between surrendering to the wisdom and auspices of unquestioned, unchecked (and frankly, unwise) monotheism and being perceived as subhuman scum by those who do such surrendering, then I shall proudly bear the brand of a Kafir.
I would love to learn that there is no good reason to do so, but so far the Islamic references I have met are simply not very willing to cooperate with that goal.
It is sad, too, if for no other reason because I have pretty much concluded that some of the most admirable people in all of existence have, in fact, been dedicated Muslims such as Kemal Ataturk and, above all, Khan Abdul Gaffhar Khan. Quite frankly, I expect people in a couple of generations or so to hold doubts about Khan's very existence. He is almost literally too admirable to to real.
But their religion? It sure seems to be in bad need for an internal questioning and renewal that, from all appearances, it just won't allow itself to have. And that because it has put itself in a situation where it can't choose self-improvement without branding itself a misguided, apostatic or herectic group.
They have simply bet too much of their religious dignity and worth on the health of a very few, very unsound premises.
I badly want to be convinced otherwise, but the means just will not materialize. Every single attempt I went through just gives me further evidence that while most Muslims are very well-meaning, often admirably virtuous people, they are helpless to deal with abuse of faith to the point of perhaps doubting it to be a possibility altogether within their religion.
I have
every right to fear and denounce such a danger, make no mistake. Among other reasons, because that is perhaps the only way of learning that I am misjudging Islam - if it turns out that I somehow am.
