The article discusses why Islamophobia constitutes a major racist discourse today and illustrates how we can make sense of this
global
relevance of Islamophobia. The author explains the centrality of ...the ‘religion line’ in the current global world system by drawing on the post-Cold War era. Through a decolonial reading of Islamophobia, three empirical cases are chosen to discuss differences and commonalities between various forms of Islamophobia in the Xingjiang/China, Egypt, and the USA exploring the effects of this global phenomenon on the discursive construction of identities, citizenship rights, and governance.
The content of right-wing populism is currently built largely upon Islamophobic mobilization, whereas, before the Second Republic of Austria, anti-Semitism was the principal content of populism in ...Austria. This article engages in a comparative discussion of the anti-Semitic propaganda deployed by political parties before the rise of the Austrofascist state and National Socialist rule in Austria and Islamophobic propaganda in present-day Austria. Specifically, the article compares the anti-Semitic discourse of “Jewification” that circulated between 1876 and 1934 with the current Islamophobic discourse of “Islamization,” which is used by political parties such as the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the Christian democratic Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which together currently form the coalition government in the Republic of Austria. This article comparatively investigates anti-Semitic and Islamophobic topoi to consider what continuities and shifts have occurred within the imagining of the (Oriental) Jewish and Muslim “other.”
Am 9. November 2020 hat in Österreich die größte rassistische Polizeioperation seit 1945 stattgefunden. Unter dem Namen »Operation Luxor« wurde eine Woche nach einem gewalttätigen Anschlag in der ...Wiener Innenstadt eine Razzia gegen ca. 70 Personen und Einrichtungen durchgeführt. Die mehr als eineinhalb Jahre geplante Aktion gegen Anhänger*innen des sogenannten »politischen Islam« ist mittlerweile als rechtswidrig eingestuft worden. Die Beiträger*innen des Bandes setzen sich aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven kritisch mit der Polizeioperation auseinander. Neben wissenschaftlichen Analysen verschiedener Fachbereiche kommen auch Expert*innen aus der Zivilgesellschaft zu Wort.
In recent years, Islamophobia has become a useful tool for right-wing parties to mobilize electors in many European nation-states. The general xenophobic campaigns of the 1980s have given way to ...Islamophobia as a specific expression of racism. It is not only the new incarnations of right-wing populist parties that are making use of Islamophobic populism, but also right-wing extremist parties, whose traditions hark back to fascist or Nazi parties. This development appears unsurprising, as Islamophobia has somehow become a kind of 'accepted racism', found not only on the margins of European societies but also at the centre. Another interesting concomitant shift is the attempt by such parties to gain wider acceptance in mainstream societies by distancing themselves from a former antisemitic profile. While the main focus on an exclusive identity politics in the frame of nation-states previously divided the far right and complicated transnational cooperation, a shared Islamophobia has the potential to be a common ground for strengthening the transnational links of right-wing parties. This shift from antisemitism to Islamophobia goes beyond European borders and enables Europe's far right to connect to Israeli parties and the far right in the United States. Hafez's article explores this thesis by analysing the European Alliance for Freedom, a pan-European alliance of far-right members of the European parliament that has brought various formerly antagonistic parties together through a common anti-Muslim programme, and is trying to become a formal European parliamentary fraction in the wake of its victory in the European elections in May 2014.
This article discusses the emergence of a discourse on ‘political Islam’ in the policy circles of European elites. It interprets this discourse on one hand as a manifestation of the further ...criminalization of Muslimness emanating from programs of countering ‘extremism’ and deradicalizing Muslim youth in the wake of the global war on terror. More specifically, the discourse on ‘political Islam’ is seen as an extension of countering violent extremism projects to counter an alleged non-violent ‘extremism.’ The article discusses three cases: Austria, Germany, and France to analyze what the fight against ‘political Islam’ (in Austria), ‘legalistic Islamism’ (in Germany), and ‘Islamist separatism’ (in France) respectively mean. These terminologies are analyzed as ‘empty signifiers’ and (Foucauldian) dispositifs that are used deliberately to legitimize state interventions to shape their respective societies. It is argued that the main shared idea is not that Muslims break the law or commit violence. Rather, the argument is that Muslims use the law to subvert their European nation-states. This aims at excluding Muslims from political life and not allowing them to shape the future of these countries. A simultaneous effort is the nurturing of an unpolitical, submissive Muslim that does not question hegemonial power structures, a project which is pursued by creating a domesticated or ‘national Islam.’ The article discusses these three terminologies' similarities and differences in the respective countries. In sum, the apparatus of ‘political Islam’ is interpreted as a means to 1) push back or exclude Muslims from the public sphere; 2) crackdown on organized Muslims; and 3) silence critical voices to these policies.
This article analyses the two national parliamentary debates on the new Islam law of 2015 using a Viennese School of Critical Discourse Analysis. It asks how the new Islam law was framed from the ...perspectives of the political parties in power and of those in opposition. It also shows in detail which arguments were raised to defend, alter or support the proposed law by identifying the list of topoi used. It asks especially how racist arguments were debated between on one side a comparably tolerant Austrian system of laws on religion, and on the other, the dominant rightwing populist Freedom Party of Austria, which aimed to foster Islamophobia.
This essay examines Austria's political approaches to Islam between 2011 and 2022 at the interface of political science and religious policy as informed by postcolonial studies. Austrian political ...approaches to Islam are analyzed through the study of publications, press releases, government and party programmes, as well as laws, all conceptualized as an Islam dispositif. Against the backdrop of a restrictive policy on integration, it is considered that a similar situation exists for political approaches to Islam. In addition to an ambivalence of ideas of openness and restriction, the co-option of right-wing positions taken from the racist far right can be observed, which goes hand in hand with seemingly tolerant speech. The essay shows how on a discoursive level, the civilization and modernization theorem of the Habsburg Monarchy can today be found in the discourse of an Austrian/European form of Islam that stands for progress, enlightenment, and modernity in contrast to adherents of an alleged "political Islam" that represents independent Muslim agency. This idea of "political Islam" is then used to legitimize legal discrimination of Muslims. In all these discourses, Said's concept of othering acts as a central formation for those in dominant positions to legitimate their position of power.
The following article discusses the establishment of centers of Islamic Studies (Islamische Theologie) in Germany. While many authors have discussed different theories which shape the accommodation ...of Islam in Western European nation states, I suggest that the security dispositif (Foucault) has a strong impact on the way the state and religious communities interact with each other. I argue that against the backdrop of a hegemonic Islamophobic discourse and a securitization of Islam, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz) as the main actor in charge of domestic security issues within the Ministry of Interior, shapes the construction of the German ‘Muslim subject’ to discipline and govern Germany's Muslims. The Verfassungsschutz becomes a defining power in the attempt to locate Islam in the German religio-political landscape by influencing the politics of several state agencies. This is due to broadening the notion of security which affects the ‘integration policy’ of several state agencies and makes the integration issue a priority in other policy areas. A hegemonic Islamophobic discourse, in which Islam has become a security threat, seems to foster such a policy. I will elaborate the securitization of Islam through the Verfassungsschutz by tracing its role in the institutionalization of Islamic Studies at state universities.
