re: #26 Achilles Tang

So I gather that Sam Harris said words to the effect that Muslims complain of Islamaphobia, and also said that Muslims had invented the word.

No. He claims that it was a concept popularized for the purpose of derailing reasonable criticisms of the religion (i.e. making people like him sound like bigoted assholes). When, in fact Islamaphobia accurately describes his behavior and beliefs.

I’m sure I’ve seen that Muslims have used the word as an accusation against opponents (someone here even thought it applied to me because I dare be critical of CL because she never engages in debate).

Well, in YOUR case, she’s probably quite right to disengage. Since you are fixated on who created the word instead of how the word is used by Sam Harris and co, and how the rest of the english-speaking world uses it, and why it is used that way.

So if Muslims somewhere never actually first coined the word, this changes what? If Sam Harris is wrong in that regard, but the word is still frequently used by many, Muslim and others, so what?

Didn’t we ALREADY cover this? Seriously? Time for an analogy…

Tin-Foil Hat Man: BLAHBLAHBLIBBITYBLAH
Normal Person: OK, Tin-Foil Hat Man, that’s tin-foil hat stuff…
Tin-Foil Hat Man: Of course, the idea of linking tin-foil hats and insanity is what THEY want you to think, a concept THEY popularized to make people like me look bad!
Normal Person: But…your beliefs are insane…and…you ARE wearing a tin-foil hat.

Replace Tin-Foil Hat Man with Sam Harris, descriptions of tin-foil hats with support of bigotry, and insanity with Islamaphobia, and THEY with Muslims and/or their supporters and you have a reasonably accurate depiction of what Sam Harris seems to think.