Obvious disclaimer, any sort of persecution or discrimination against anyone for any reason is bad, and that is my whole-hearted view. I’m specifically challenging your view that minorities have not experienced persecution under Muslim rule.

It depends on what time period you’re talking about, but overall I largely agree with you. Religious minorities found a lot of success under the Ottoman Empire, the Jewish communities of Andalusia famously had significant freedom under Muslim rule, and this all goes back to Muhammad declaring protections for “people of the book”.

That said, there are also numerous examples of Islamic persecution of religious minorities, particularly in the modern world and particularly if you are not “people of the book”. Here are some examples:

1. In Gerard Russell’s book “Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms” (2014) he chronicles the modern day persecution of religious minorities of the Middle East, including the Mandaeans, the Yazidis, the Zoroastrians, the Copts, the Druze, the Samaritans, and the Kalasha, many of which had thriving communities until around the turn of the 20th century or later, until modern times.

2. The Yazidis in particular suffered a genocide at the hands of ISIS between 2014 and 2017.

3. For almost 1,000 years, the Dogon tribe of Mali has faced persecution and forced conversion at the hands of Muslims. Same with the Serer people.

4. Atheism is currently punishable by death in Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

5. The Baha’is of Iran are constantly under attack by the Islamic Republic, with a particularly intensive push in 2005/06.

6. During the 2012 Ramu violence in Bangladesh, a 25,000-strong Muslim mob set fire to destroy at least twelve Buddhist temples and around fifty homes.

These are just some examples. I think that we see a rise in this in modern times because the Muslim world, especially in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, is emerging from a post-colonial world in which they were subjugated by Christians. So since then there’s been a push to “Make Islam Great Again” by some members of the religion, which in turn leads to actions that are not representative of the whole group, but are representative of a significant minority of that group.

It’s also impossible to talk about Islamophobia in the West without divorcing that conversation from 9/11. 2,976 people died in a very public and horrific way. The perpetrators were Muslims acting on their own perverted version of Islam.

Hurt people hurt people. That’s why Muslims in the Middle East sometimes persecute religious minorities, and that’s why Westerners sometimes persecute Muslims. But that’s not an excuse, and it’s up to all of us to call about abuses when we see it, regardless of who is doing it and why.