At our traditional Sunday brunch it occurred to us that we fear bones. No, not the big bones found in museum dinosaurs and not even the small ones found in T-bone steaks. We fear the tiny invisible bones found in tasty smoked white fish. No matter how well it is de-boned, even wearing our best pair of reading glasses, one bone always sneaks through.

Bonophobia! We exclaimed. Whereupon the wife assumed, justifiably, that we have developed a fear of Bono. We confessed that Bono does scare us a little, but fear of global megalomaniacs working to transfer our money to the UN, Africa, or Carbon Credit Corporations, would more appropriately be called Gorophobia.

The probability of a tiny bone hiding in any particular piece of fish is very small. However, it is certain that before the meal is done a tiny bone will choke somebody at the table. In that regard, Bonophobia is amazingly similar to Islamophobia.

Just think of Islam as the whole and each individual Muslim as a piece of the fish. The probability of an individual Muslim exploding may be small, but it is absolutely certain that on any given day some will. We fear Islam for the same reason we fear the tiny fish bones. Fear is not the same as hate. We hate few Muslims and none of the bones.

Via Hot Air we linked to an interesting Theodore Dalrymple article in the LA times that discusses the issue of mistrusting Muslims. The LA Times requires registration but it is quick and painless and worth your time just for this article. After the Islamist attempt to blow up people at the Glasgow Airport.

Apart from the prohibition of passenger drop-off and pickup next to the terminal building at Birmingham Airport, everything was as usual. Men and women in Muslim garb mingled in the crowd with perfect tranquillity, expecting neither violence nor even verbal reproach.

Was this a sign of the admirable tolerance of British society, or of its bovine complacency born of an inability, or unwillingness, to make the effort to defend itself? Was it decency, cowardice or stupidity?

I really don’t know anymore, which is an indication of the problem: Only time will tell, and by then it might be too late.

And dealing with the “one in a thousand” argument, Dalrymple writes:

Now, despite friendly and long-lasting relations with many Muslims, my first reaction on seeing Muslims in the street is mistrust; my prejudice, far from having been inherited or inculcated early in life, developed late in response to events.

The fundamental problem is this: There is an asymmetry between the good that many moderate Muslims can do for Britain and the harm that a few fanatics can do to it. The 1-in-1,000 chance that a man is a murderous fanatic is more important to me than the 999-in-1,000 chance that he is not a murderous fanatic: If, that is, he is not especially valuable or indispensable to me in some way.

Many in the West are beginning to understand that the only solution guaranteed to work is shunning fish altogether.

Talking of Islamophobia, shouldn’t it properly be named Islamphobia? Are there extra bonus points for sounding like Homophobia?

We reserve all rights to the terms Bonophobia and Gorophobia. Later, when Psychologists identify these phobias as the cause of the decline of Western Civilization, we will make a fortune on royalties.