In the News: Jacques Fremont Propagates the Myth of Islamophobia

Survey reveals troubling data on religious tolerance in Quebec, Catherine Solyom, 2015-10-29

An as-yet-unpublished survey conducted by the Quebec Human Rights Commission paints an alarming picture of attitudes toward religious diversity in the province — especially toward Muslims:
•43 per cent of respondents said you should be suspicious of anyone who openly expresses their religion.
•45 per cent said they had a negative view of religion.
•48.9 per cent — roughly one out of two — said it bothered them to be attended to by a woman wearing a hijab.

[…]

These are some of the results presented Friday at an international symposium on Islamophobia by the president of the Commission, Jacques Frémont.

[…] there have not been many complaints for discrimination filed at the Human Rights Commission, Frémont said. An average of 1,500 complaints are filed every year. Since 2013 there have only been 64 complaints filed for discrimination based on religion, however, 65 per cent of which were filed by Muslims.

[…]

Still, the Commission has not been inundated with complaints. “We expected an increase in incidents around the debate over the Charter of Values. I told my team, hang on to your hats! But we didn’t hear a single complaint. The victims chose not to file complaints and that’s very worrisome … Victims prefer to close in on themselves.”

The Gazette article quoted above is spectacularly bad, totally prejudiced in favour of Jacques Frémont’s highly tendencious opinions.

Frémont and his ilk would have us believe that to be anti-religious is a bad thing. However, religions are dangerous, even odious, ideologies. If an anti-religious person is well informed and expresses his or her antipathy towards religion in a coherent and reasoned manner, then it is a virtue. In particular, the myth of “islamophobia” is that to fear Islam is irrational and repréhensible. On the contrary, to fear Islam, especially its more radical variants such as Islamism, is quite simply prudent and rational.

According to Frémont, the fact that complaints to the HRC from Muslims have not increased in number is proof that “islamophobia” is on the rise in Quebec. This is a classic example of a non-falsifiable hypothesis. If the number of complaints were stable or on the rise, he would probably say the same: that “islamophobia” is a big problem. So no matter what the data say, nothing can invalidate his specious theory.