These are the same people who endlessly drone about ‘Islamophobia’ (often putting narrative before fact like Hicks) and complain all the time about people allegedly stirring hate. Yet they themselves are stirring hatred of people like Ayaan, and more often than not doing so by total distortions, smear and hyperbole.

You correctly pointed out a while back on Twitter that none of these people complaining all the time about being victims all the time actually facing very real and credible death threats and require high security everywhere they go. It’s people like Ayaan or anyone who speaks out on these topics who are sadly are victims of real credible danger and constant hate and smear.

Also what the Islamophobia lobby still fails to understand is that this will backfire. People like Irshad Manji are liberal voices. As Sam Harris always points out, by shutting those voices down with a dedicated stream of vicious smear, they are just empowering demagogues with more truly bigoted views who will have thick enough skins to deal with this and would likely take far harder more authoritarian policy stances, which would be a lose for all of us.