Some of you might know about the various attacks that have been carried out by Islamists against Jews in the UK over the last couple of years, becoming more and more frequent over the past few months this year. Yesterday there was yet another attack by an Islamist, who deliberately went to a Jewish area of North London with the express intent of murdering as many Jews as possible.
Because I am disabled, elderly and housebound, I have carers and home-help visit me 4 times a week. I have had to explain to the two agencies involved that I do not want them to send me anyone who might be anti-Jewish. This is not because I am anti-Muslim—because I’m not; it is because as an elderly and vulnerable person, I genuinely fear for my life. Online, there are certain notable groups of people who label such precautions as ‘Islamophobic’.
There is a disturbing tendency in various areas of public discourse to respond to Jewish fears in Britain with supercilious dismissal, suspicion, or moral accusation. When a Jewish person says, “I am afraid,” the reply too often becomes, “You are being Islamophobic,” or, “What about the Palestinians?” These responses are not only unhelpful—they are ethically misplaced moral deflections.
To begin with, fear is not an ideology. It is a human response to perceived danger. A phobia is an irrational fear, and fear of Islamic extremism is not an irrational fear. In recent years, there have been well-documented increases in anti-Jewish incidents in the United Kingdom, including physical violence, kidnappings, bombings, murders, threats, and harassment of Jewish businesses and schoolchildren. Most of these have been linked to individuals or groups motivated by extremist Islamist ideologies. To ignore this fact is a deliberate failure to recognise the problem; to acknowledge it is not to condemn all Muslims; it is to recognise that a specific form of extremism exists, and has targeted Jews.
I have no problem with moderate Muslims; I always do my best to live the teachings of the Prophet Yeshua in my life. I do however have a problem with fascist Islamists. I personally believe that religious fundamentalism in ANY religion is an offence against the holiness of God. I genuinely cannot understand why people defend religious fascism, and bend over backwards to make excuses for it.
When a Jewish person expresses fear of antisemitic violence, we are not making a theological statement about Islam, nor a political statement about Muslims as a whole. We are speaking about vulnerability. In many cases, we are speaking from lived experience or credible awareness of risk. To dismiss that fear as “Islamophobia” is to misunderstand its nature entirely.
There is a clear moral distinction between prejudice and a fear for one’s life. Prejudice generalises and dehumanises. Self-protection assesses risk and seeks safety. A disabled, housebound individual like me, who takes steps to feel safe in their own home, is not engaging in bigotry. We are responding to our circumstances in a way that most people would consider prudent if applied in any other circumstance, or to any other form of threat.
The introduction of the Palestinian question into such a conversation is also an inappropriate “whataboutism”. However one understands that conflict, it does not logically follow that Jews in Britain should be held responsible for it. Nor does it justify treating our safety concerns as morally suspect, or unworthy of concern. Collective blame—holding individuals accountable for the actions of a state or a distant conflict—is itself a form of bigoted prejudice. It is precisely the kind of reasoning that anti-racist principles are meant to tackle.
It is also worth noting that Jewish fear and Palestinian suffering are not mutually exclusive concerns. A person may oppose violence against Palestinians and still recognise the reality of antisemitism in Britain. These are not competing moral claims that cancel each other out. To insist that the one must naturally negate the other, is to turn empathy into a zero-sum exercise.
The charge of “Islamophobia” should only be reserved for unwarranted hostility or discrimination against Muslims as people. When the charge is used instead to silence expressions of fear about extremist violence, it loses all its meaning, and instead becomes a tool of systemic dismissal and oppression, rather than a protective shield. Abusing the term does not serve Muslim communities either, many of whom are themselves opposed to extremism, and do not benefit from having legitimate concerns mischaracterised.
A more appropriate response would be to begin with listening, not self-righteous virtue-signalling. When someone says they are afraid, the first duty is not to correct them, but to understand why they are afraid. From there, it is possible to have a more nuanced discussion about risks, perceptions, and how to uphold the safety and dignity of all communities.
In a society that values fairness and tolerance – which is what British society used to be like – no one should be made to feel that their fear is illegitimate, simply because of who they are. Jewish people in Britain are not abstractions in an international, geopolitical argument. We are individuals, neighbours, and citizens, entitled just like anyone else to safety, dignity, and to be taken seriously when we say we feel at risk.