Intolerance of intolerance

In a sterling example of content free double talk, Baroness Warsi has a piece on the BBC today claiming that prejudice against Muslims has become "normal" in the UK. She then goes on to explain that by prejudice she means the categorisation of Muslims into extremist or moderate and any form of dinner party conversation regarding Islam or it's implementation by Muslims, for example the rationale behind Muslim women wearing a burka. According to Warsi the blame for this is laid at the feet of "the patronising, superficial way faith is discussed in certain quarters, including the media", although like most followers of a "faith" she neglects to provide any concrete examples of why any such conversations are patronising or superficial, all I can see are straw men.

Rational people everywhere should ridicule this idiot; her comments are a joke, her motives sinister and any evidence that she desires a rational or reasonable debate non-existent, what she is demanding is censorship, plain and simple. Dislike of islam is a consequence of people's behaviour in implementing Islam (or their interpretation of it) - just as it is with the dislike of fascism and a "phobia" is an irrational emotion, there is nothing irrational about a dislike of Islam. I have a wholly rational fear about people who seem to want to kill me and run my country according to medieval theocratical laws which are completely at odds with hard won principals of tolerance and free speech. Ergo, I am not Islamophobic or even Christianophobic, I am reasonable.

When we look at what people could discuss at dinner parties when it comes to Islam, its a scary list; for example, fatwa's, sharia law, misogyny, honour killings, forced marriages, homophobia, anti-Semitism, female genital mutilation, imperialistic aspirations etc. etc. oh and if you are a Muslim and decide to leave your religion then the penalty is death, would Baroness Warsi stand up in the house of Lords and deny that the penalty for apostasy in Islam is death?

I want to live in a society where any idea may be examined and criticised and those criticisms rise or fall based upon the quality of the arguments and evidence, religions, cultures, philosophies are just ideas like political ideas and should be treated as such, would Warsi be happy to belong to a Conservative party that mandated the death penalty for anyone leaving it and joining Labour, even if such a rule was seldom implemented?