Iceland Part 3: Islamophobia

During my investigation of the Reykjavik boycott issue, I consulted the Islam in Iceland site. The following is a quote from the article:  

Many public expressions of Islamophobia have ... been focused on opposition to the creation of a purpose-built Reykjavík mosque. Opposition to Islam is often presented in terms of support for gender equality, a discourse which in Kristín's assessment [Kristín Loftsdóttir is an Icelandic academic -kg] is 'used as a way to dwell on the criticism of Muslims in general, and to the glory of European societies'.

In other words, you are Islamophobic if:

• You actually think that women should have equal rights with men
• You don't want a mosque built next door (the Muslims do already have a dedicated prayer hall, so there is no restriction on freedom of worship in Reykjavik). Polls indicate that the majority of Icelanders don't want the mosque built. I wonder if they realize that down the line there will be a demand for high minarets and for muezzins using loudspeakers to call the faithful to prayer (even during the morning wee hours, when most people are sleeping). This, however, is something Icelanders will have to work out for themselves when the time comes, as are other European countries.

I think that it would be fair to state that the so-called 'glory of European societies' does, in fact, mean respecting the basic principles of human rights such as gender equality and not having a tiny minority disturb the rest and relaxation of the vast majority in the name of freedom of religion.
When the time comes to deal with claims of Islamophobia, it would be worthwhile to examine the substance of the Islamophobia argument, which I think would be revealed, in many cases, to be inconsistent with basic principles of Western tradition.