Islamophilia (neologism)

Islamophilia is a controversial term (believed to have been first used by critic of Islam Daniel Pipes) employed by some journalists, media commentators and politicians to describe unwavering and uncritical admiration of Islam and used to counteract what many believe to be spurious accusations of Islamophobia. British journalist Julie Burchill also complained of a kind of "mindless Islampohilia" that was "considerably more dangerous" than Islamophobia owing to what she claimed was a whitewashing of Islamic History and its use as a way of stifling debate.

Many proponents of the term argue that it has existed historically as well, in instances like the wave of orientalism that followed Disraeli's premiership and his support for the Ottoman Empire of the time Others have also drawn upon purported historical instances of Islamophilia. Karl Binswanger remarked on the "dogmatic Islamophilia" of many orientalists. Jacques Ellul complained in 1983 that "in France it is no longer acceptable to criticise Islam or the Arab countries." As early as 1968, Maxime Rodinson had written, "An historian like Norman Daniel has gone so far as to number among the conceptions permeated with medievalism or imperialism, any criticisms of the Prophet’s moral attitudes and to accuse of like tendencies any exposition of Islam and its characteristics by means of the normal mechanisms of human history. Understanding has given way to apologetics pure and simple."