"I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City," mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani declared through rehearsed tears and a well-oiled frog-in-his-throat. "I want to speak to the memory of my aunt, who stopped taking the subway after Sept. 11 because she did not feel safe in a hijab."

This speech — a speech that ignited a firestorm online over whether or not this woman existed, whether she was actually an aunt or whether this story ever happened — was part of a longer diatribe on what Mamdani called "Islamophobia."

Portraying Muslims as the true victims of 9/11 — which remains the deadliest act of brutal Islamic terrorism on American soil — might seem like the latest absurd re-telling of Norm Macdonald's famous tweet that has now become a meme: "What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?" But in reality, it's so much more, and cuts to the heart of "Islamophobia" itself.

Why? Because Islamophobia is a made-up word that is itself a weapon of radical Islam.

Often, it's used to describe discrimination or persecution or hatred targeting Muslims, of which such discrimination, persecution and hatred certainly exists and should be wholeheartedly condemned. But when anti-Jewish hatred is called "antisemitism," anti-Asian hatred is called "anti-Asian hatred," anti-Hispanic hatred is called "anti-Hispanic hatred" and anti-Christian hatred is just ignored completely, why is anti-Muslim hatred called "Islamophobia"?

Ironically, why is anti-Muslim hatred named in the same way as anti-gay hatred, homophobia — a hatred that is part of the furniture within radical Islam, by the way.

Well, because Islamophobia is both a shield and a sword. Let's look at the two parts of this word: Islam and phobia.

Muslims are people who practice Islam. Muslims are a people, while Islam is a religion, a set of ideas like any other faith or ideology. By using Islam, and not Muslims, as the prefix for this label, the defended class becomes the religion, and not just the people. It's not just Muslims that are protected by Islamophobia but Islam itself.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, a phobia is an "uncontrollable, irrational, and lasting fear of a certain object, situation, or activity," classed as an anxiety disorder and a mental health issue. So, any accusation of Islamophobia therefore makes the claim that the guilty party is not just expressing hatred of an individual Muslim because they are Muslim but is guilty of an uncontrollable, irrational and lasting fear of Islam.

In our free country, we must remain free to criticize any ideology, including political, cultural and religious ideologies. To do so is not irrational or necessarily hateful, and yet this reflex seems to only apply to Islam. After all, it is certainly not antisemitic to criticize (or even hate) Judaism, and so why is any criticism of Islam not only deemed as hateful but as proof of a mental illness?

Well, because this is part of a rhetorical battle that seeks to hijack Western principles of tolerance to ensure that Islam and Islam alone goes unquestioned, uncriticized and unopposed, engaging in one of the most phenomenal gaslighting campaigns in modern history by labeling anyone who criticizes Islam — including the radical "globalize the intifada" Jihadism exhibited by figures such as Zohran Mamdani — as not only hateful but crazy.

I'm not crazy, and neither are you.

To find out more about Ian Haworth and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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