Islamophobia versus Freedom of Speech?

A turbulant war of words has been initiated in international politics. The French teacher Samuel Paty showed in a secondary school the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad and was brutally killed, slaughtered with a knife, like a butcher killing a goat or cow. The crime was committed by an 18 years old man from Russia, of Chechanian offspring. He was shot dead immediately. A French organization active against Islamophobia had called for action against this teacher. This organization now is forbidden by President Macron, a mosque related to this call against the teacher has been closed for six months. Now Erdogan has called for doctors to psychologically investigate his French colleague, while Erdogan has also called the Dutch politican Wilders as a fascist (imitating Hitler and his hatred against Jews?). The French President called his ambassador in Ankara back to Paris. The Dutch Prime Minister has not yet taken measures against Erdogan, who now also calls for a ban on French products in Turkish shops (joining an Arab boycot of French products).

It is still a war of words, but is urges us to think about the abuse of words like Islamophobia. The difficult issue is that of application of the word 'Islam" to deeds of Muslims. Is 'pure' Islam the cause of hatred, violent actions? Is there any Holy War possible? In the name of Christianity religious leaders called for the crusades and the 'liberation of Jerusalem' from Muslim rule. Also in the colonial period, from the first charter of the VOC to the last periods there was some religious motivation in the actions against the Muslims of Indonesia and the division of the colony on the basis of race and religion (Europeans/Christians, Other Asians, native people =Muslims). I even think that the great role of religion in social life (and social divisions) in Indonesia has its roots in this colonial period, when (in contrast to the separation of religion and politics in the Netherlands), religion continued to play a role in social rules like marriage, inheritance, social position in Indonesia.

Daily Sabah is (after the Gülen newspaper Zaman Today was closed by Erdogan) the largest English Language newspaper of Turkey. It had another article: 'Turkey has after the UK the largest number of Starbucks branches of any European country, but why?' This shows the difficult position of modern Turkey in Europe (not in the Arab world, or in Middle Eastern Societies!). Some times one may hope that there should be less religion in our lives!