There are bigger concerns about its spread

The argument

To try and untangle the state of Islamophobia before and after the outbreak at this point, is premature. Until the pandemic is over, and normal life resumes, these analyses are meaningless. Instead. we must focus on the more important concerns. Namely, the spread of the virus, which is ravaging across a country where many are forced to live in cramped conditions, without access to anti-bacterial gels, masks, gloves or other lifesaving PPEs.

Context

It is hard to gauge how Islamophobia has evolved since the outbreak, but wherever you stand, this is not the main concern.

Premises

Counter-arguments

This is a dangerous argument, which deliberately undermines anxieties around the open spread of racism across the country. Choosing to neglect this now will have a long-term impact it is not so easy to undo. Islamophobia is a problem in India, and it must be dealt with properly during this pandemic.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] "Premature" does not follow from "ongoing", and "meaningless" certainly does not. Contemporaneous reporting, police records and survey data are gathered during events precisely because evidence and memory degrade afterwards, and the sibling positions on this question are built from exactly that kind of material. [Rejecting P2] The second premise establishes that the virus is a grave problem, not that it is the only one, and the two concerns are not in competition — as the counter-argument notes, deferring the question does not hold it still. If the pandemic is aggravating hostility toward a minority, then transmission and its social consequences are the same subject, which is the position this argument is offered against.