Critics reject the term Islamophobia because it conflates religion, ethnicity, and legitimate criticism.

Evidence

Authors have criticized it for being applied to widely divergent phenomena (Cesari 2006: 5-6; Zúquete 2008: 323), because it implies fear of Islam as a faith when the “true” problem is negative stereotyping of Muslims as a people (Halliday 1999: 898), and because it risks stigmatizing all critiques of Islam (Halliday 1999: 899; Zúquete 2008: 324). — Erik Bleich, Defining and Researching Islamophobia, 30

Categorization

• QUESTION: Raises the open question of whether any single term can cover anti-Muslim racism while preserving space for critique of religious ideas.