Media Matters for America

NRO's Derbyshire wants to deny Muslims entry to the U.S. and "expel foreign Muslim residents"

September 21, 2007 5:36 pm ET

In a September 20 column headlined "Islamophobophobia," National Review Online columnist John Derbyshire explained why he takes issue with the concept of Islamophobia, which he previously discussed in a review of Robert Spencer's Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't (Regnery, 2007). In the column, Derbyshire wrote that it would be wise to "deny entry to foreign Muslims" and "to expel ... resident foreign Muslims":

It's odd that I don't like Islamophobia because I would answer a prompt yes to all the following questions

Derbyshire continued:

As to my third bullet point -- I'm working through them -- it is surely clear now that our troubles with immigrant Muslims are a mere aspect of our larger troubles with the great floods of Third World immigrants we have allowed to come into our countries this past forty years. This was a horrible and insane blunder, as wise men pointed out very early in the process. "Diversity" is a bust.

[...]

Would I exclude foreign Muslims from settlement in the U.S.A.? Yes, I would; but this is not actually saying much, as I would stop all mass immigration if I could. Islam needs particular attention because of the sheer quantity of lunacy it has thrown up in the present generation; but it is not the only counterexample to the Diversity Theorem, only the most pressing one.

Finally, in a footnote to his article, Derbyshire explains why he dislikes the word "Islamophobia," stating that while phobias are irrational, "fear of Islam is perfectly rational":

Roger Kimball tells me this is the wrong word. A phobia (says Roger) is an irrational fear of something. Fear of Islam is perfectly rational! I leave you to discuss this among yourselves.

&mdash S.N.J.

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