The idiot idea that you can't criticise Islam without being called an 'Islamophobe' is, hilariously, usually made by some arsehole writing in the Daily Mail or some even worse Islamophobic website who never ever ever stops slagging off Muslims. And you'll find that not one of them can actually offer up a 'legitimate criticism' of Islam, not that there aren't plenty. I couldn't personally give a fuck. I have as much of an affinity with Islam, the religion of my father, as I do with Catholicism, the religion of my mother - I believe in and practice neither. But I know a thing or two about both and read Arabic well enough and know a decent bit about the history of Islam.
Islam, as it's popularly understood today, with Sunni and Shia, two blanket terms describing extremely diverse strands of the faith, was literally born in a schism of self-criticism. The Christian reformation occurred in the Middle Ages, but Islam, since its inception in the year of 632, was essentially in a constant state of reform, splits and what they call fitna ('strife') - some of it, by definition, was not good, other parts of it were progressive.
Islam, like any belief system, can be and is criticised (in the West, it's obviously criticised to the point of absurdity by idiots claiming you can't criticise Islam), but to criticise something you have to understand it first. I could sit here and bore everyone to tears with criticisms of Islam based on my lived experience of it and my understanding of it, but I won't. If someone, however, asked me to criticise Hinduism, I'd not be able to, as I don't have the necessary understanding of the faith and really don't have any desire to criticise the faith. I could easily criticise Hindu nationalism, of the Narendra Modi-BJP variety, much like I could and have criticised Salafi-jihadism and other forms of Islamic chauvinism - you don't need advanced understandings of Islam to criticise and oppose a totalitarian ideology.
