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ABSTRACT
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.
Notes
1 Andreas Zick, Beate Küpper and Andreas Hövermann, Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination: A European Report (Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung 2011), 61, available on the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung website at http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/do/07908-20110311.pdf (viewed 18 August 2014) (original emphasis).
2 Andreas Zick, Beate Küpper and Andreas Hövermann, Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination: A European Report (Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung 2011), 61, available on the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung website at http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/do/07908-20110311.pdf (viewed 18 August 2014) (original emphasis), 161–2.
3 Andreas Zick, Beate Küpper and Andreas Hövermann, Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination: A European Report (Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung 2011), 61, available on the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung website at http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/do/07908-20110311.pdf (viewed 18 August 2014) (original emphasis), 161–2.
4 Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate, trans. from the French by George J. Becker (New York: Schocken Books 1995), 13–14; Alexander Pollak, ‘Antisemitismus: Probleme der Definition und Operationalisierung eines Begriffs’, in John Bunzl and Alexandra Senfft (eds), Zwischen Antisemitismus und Islamophobie: Vorurteile und Projektionen in Europa und Nahost (Hamburg: VSA-Verlag 2008), 17–32.
5 Wolfgang Benz, ‘Vorwort‘, Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung, vol. 17, 2008, 9–14; Wolfgang Benz (ed.), Islamfeinschaft und ihr Kontext: Dokumentation der Konferenz ‘Feindbild Muslim—Feindbild Jude’ (Berlin: Metropol Verlag 2009).
6 Anders Hellström, Tom Nilsson and Pauline Stoltz, ‘Nationalism vs. nationalism: the challenge of the Sweden Democrats in the Swedish public debate’, Government and Opposition, vol. 47, no. 2, 2012, 186–205; Anton Pelinka and Ruth Wodak, ‘Dreck am Stecken’: Politik der Ausgrenzung (Vienna: Czernin Verlag 2002).
7 Karin Priester, Rassismus: Eine Sozialgeschichte (Leipzig: Reclam 2003), 247–93.
8 Farid Hafez, ‘Identität im Fluss: Über das “Eigene” und das “Fremde” in der Islamdebatte’, in Christian Danz and André Ritter (eds), Zwischen Kruzifix und Minarett: Religion im Fokus der Öffentlichkeit (Münster: Waxmann Verlag 2012), 15–30.
9 Priester, Rassismus, 247–69.
10 At the same time, Nasar Meer observes a ‘virtual absence of an established literature on race and racism in the discussion of Islamophobia; something that is only marginally more present in the discussion of antisemitism’: Nasar Meer, ‘Semantics, scales and solidarities in the study of antisemitism and Islamophobia’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, 2013, 500–15 (501).
11 Junaid Rana, quoted in Nasar Meer, ‘Racialization and religion: race, culture and difference in the study of antisemitism and Islamophobia’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, 2013, 385–98 (386).
12 Matti Bunzl, ‘Between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: some thoughts on the new Europe’, American Ethnologist, vol. 32, no. 4, 2005, 499–508 (505).
13 Oliver Geden, ‘Identitätsdiskurs und politische Macht: Die rechtspopulistische Mobilisierung von Ethnozentrismus im Spannungsfeld von Opposition und Regierung am Beispiel von FPÖ und SVP’, in Susanne Frölich-Steffen and Lars Rensmann (eds), Populisten an der Macht: Populistische Regierungsparteien in West- und Osteuropa (Vienna: Braumüller Verlag 2005), 69–83.
14 Antonis A. Ellinas, The Media and the Far Right in Western Europe: Playing the Nationalist Card (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010).
15 Edward W. Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (New York: Random House 1981); Reinhard Schulze, ‘Vom Anti-Kommunismus zum Anti-Islamismus: Der Kuwait-Krieg als Fortschreibung des Ost-West-Konflikts’, in Norbert Mattes (ed.), Wir sind die Herren und ihr unsere Schuhputzer! Der Nahe Osten vor und nach dem Golfkrieg (Frankfurt on Main: Dagyeli Verlag 1991), 207–19.
16 Hans-Georg Betz, ‘Rechtspopulismus in Westeuropa: Aktuelle Entwicklungen und politische Bedeutung’, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, no. 3, 2002, 251–64 (253–6).
17 Raymond Taras, Xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2012); Humayun Ansari and Farid Hafez (eds), From the Far Right to the Mainstream: Islamophbia in Party Politics and the Media (NY and Frankfurt: Campus Verlag 2012).
18 Pim Fortuyn, Tegen de islamisering van onze cultuur: Nederlandse identiteit als fundament (Utrecht: A. W. Bruna 1997). Damir Skenderovic. ‘Feindbild Muslime—Islamophobie in der radikalen Rechten’, in Urs Altermatt, Mariano Delgado and Guido Vergauwen (eds), Der Islam in Europa: Zwischen Weltpolitik und Alltag (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag 2006), 79–96 (92).
19 Farid Hafez, ‘Jörg Haider and Islamophobia’, in Ansari and Hafez (eds), From the Far Right to the Mainstream, 45–68.
20 Due to internal rivalries, the PVV only gained 15 seats in the elections in 2012, while it became the second strongest party in the European parliamentary elections of 2014.
21 Stefan Theil, ‘Far-right politicians find common cause in Israel’, 27 February 2011, available on newsweek.com at www.newsweek.com/far-right-politicians-find-common-cause-israel-68583 (viewed 22 September 2014).
22 Alexander Häusler, ‘Antiislamischer Populismus als rechtes Wahlkampf-Ticket’, in Alexander Häusler (ed.), Rechtspopulismus als ‘Bürgerbewegung’: Kampagnen gegen Islam und Moscheebau und kommunale Gegenstrategien (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2008), 155–69.
23 Kai Hafez (ed.), Islam and the West in the Mass Media: Fragmented Images in a Globalizing World (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press 2000); Elizabeth Poole, Reporting Islam: Media Representations of British Muslims (London and New York: I. B. Tauris 2002).
24 Mario Peucker, ‘Islamfeindlichkeit—die empirischen Grundlagen’, in Thorsten G. Schneiders (ed.), Islamfeindlichkeit: Wenn die Grenzen der Kritik verschwimmen (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2009), 155–65; Dirk Halm, Marina Liakova and Zeliha Yetik, ‘Pauschale Islamfeindlichkeit? Zur Wahrnehmung des Islams und zur sozio-kulturellen Teilhabe des Muslime in Deutschland’, in Dirk Halm and Siegfried Jäger (eds), Mediale Barrieren: Rassismus als Integrationshindernis (Münster: Unrast-Verlag 2007), 11–49 (21–5).
25 Ansari and Hafez (eds), From the Far Right to the Mainstream.
26 Meer, ‘Semantics, scales and solidarities in the study of antisemitism and Islamophobia’, 508.
27 ‘“Front National” schließt Politiker wegen Hitlergruß aus’, Der Standard, 20 April 2011. The photograph was published in the Nouvel Obseervateur on 29 March 2011.
28 Peter Widmann, ‘Der Feind kommt aus dem Morgenland: Rechtspopulistische “Islamkritiker” um den Publizisten Hans-Peter Raddatz suchen die Opfergemeinschaft der Juden’, Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung, vol. 17, 2008, 45–68 (61–8).
29 The latter was headed until 1995 by Anders Klarström, who had previously belonged to the neo-Nazi Nordiska Rikspartiet (Nordic National Party).
30 Theil, ‘Far-right politicians find common cause in Israel’.
31 Claus Pándi, 100 Stunden: Heinz-Christian Strache in Israel, 3-part video documentary, 22 December 2010, available on the Krone TV website at www.krone.at/Oesterreich/Pandi_mit_Strache_in_Israel_Hier_ist_die_umstrittene_Doku-100_Stunden-Story-236594 (viewed 9 September 2014).
32 ‘Strache: Jerusalemer Erklärung’, 7 December 2010, available on the FPÖ website at www.fpoe.at/aktuell/detail/news/strache-jerusalemer-erklaerun/?cHash=93213baa07aea35ad22e0af790e87f01 (viewed 19 August 2014). All translations, unless otherwise stated, are by the author.
33 Geert Wilders, ‘Wilders: Israel should build more settlements’ (speech in Tel Aviv, 5 December 2010), 3 March 2011, available on the Politically Incorrect website at www.pi-news.org/2011/03/wilders-israel-should-build-more-settlements/#more-4216 (viewed 19 August 2014).
34 David Ha'ivri, quoted in Robert Mackey, ‘Support for Israel's settlements from Europe's right’ (blog), 22 December 2010, available on The Lede: the New York Times News Blog website at http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/support-for-israels-settlements-from-europes-right/ (viewed 19 August 2014).
35 Wilders, ‘Wilders: Israel should build more settlements’.
36 Marine Le Pen, quoted in Adar Primor, ‘The daughter as de-demonizer’, Haaretz, 7 January 2011.
37 This circle was founded in 1986 by the Jewish FN-member Robert Hemmerdinger, who joined the party in 1985 because Jean-Marie Le Pen was the only politician who ‘demanded the closure of the PLO's representation in Paris’: Michel Zlotowski, ‘National Front reaches out to Jewish community’, Jewish Chronicle, 24 March 2011.
38 Jörg Haider, quoted in Theil, ‘Far-right politicians find common cause in Israel’. The Italian Gianfranco Fini is perhaps the best example of a far-right figure who successfully navigated such a journey. A long-time member of the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), he became president of the newly founded Alleanza Nazionale (AN) in 1995, when the MSI was dissolved. As president of the Italian parliament, he met Ariel Sharon, and visited Yad Vashem and Auschwitz to demonstrate his transformation. This led to some members splitting off from AN, and founding La Destra. See Ulrich Ladurner, ‘Zollfrei nach Israel’, Die Zeit, 20 November 2003, and Birgit Schönau, ‘Vom Boss enterbt’, Die Zeit, 4 June 2010.
39 Klaus Ekeroth, in Claus Pándi, 100 Stunden: Heinz-Christian Strache in Israel.
40 Andreas Mölzer, in Claus Pándi, 100 Stunden: Heinz-Christian Strache in Israel.
41 Heiko Klare, Bernhard Steinke and Michael Sturm, ‘Eine “deutsche Rechte ohne Antisemitismus”?’, 27 April 2011, available on the haGalil website at www.hagalil.com/archiv/2011/04/27/pro-nrw (viewed 19 August 2014).
42 John Bunzl, ‘Der Feind meines Feindes ist mein Freund? Islamophober Populismus in Israel’, Jahrbuch für Islamophobieforschung 2012, vol. 3, 2012, 17–33.
43 Patrik Brinkmann, quoted in Klare, Steinke and Sturm, ‘Eine “deutsche Rechte ohne Antisemitismus”?’.
44 Quoted in Klare, Steinke and Sturm, ‘Eine “deutsche Rechte ohne Antisemitismus”?’.
45 Some right-wing extremists criticize this shift by the right-wing populist movements, especially when it comes to Israel. A need to counter-balance it may be the reason why, in an interview with the far-right extremist monthly Die Aula after visiting Israel, the FPÖ chairman Heinz-Christian Strache emphasized that Israel should not become a member of the EU: see the press release, ‘HC Strache in “Die Aula”: “FPÖ gegen beitritt Israels zur EU!”’, available on the APA-OTS website at www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20110415_OTS0185/hc-strache-in-die-aula-fpoe-gegen-beitritt-israels-zur-eu (viewed 9 September 2014). This points to the possibility that the shift away from antisemitism may not be so easy to achieve, and that some of the older party members still feel committed to the antisemitic profile of their parties. Leaders of right-wing extremist parties, such as Strache, therefore, have to walk a tightrope with respect to the extreme right-wing camps within their parties.
46 Ramon Grosfoguel, ‘The multiple faces of Islamophobia’, Islamophobia Studies Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, Fall 2012, 10–33 (11).
47 Meer, ‘Racialization and religion’, 388.
48 In a seminar on Islam organized by the Austrian FPÖ, Elisabeth Sabbaditsch-Wolff, the organizer of the European far right's first trip to Israel, replied to a question asking how, as a member of the FPÖ, she would deal with a Muslim man of Turkish origin, by saying that he would only try to save himself, and that ‘Muslims lie to our faces every day … the Qur'an instructs them to do so (Die Moslems lügen uns allen tagtäglich ins Gesicht. Es steht im Koran, dass sie das tun müssen)’: ‘Undercover in Straches Hass-Schule: NEWS-Reporter in Dolna in FPÖ-Parteiakademie’, News, no. 48, 2009, available on the news.at website at www.news.at/a/undercover-straches-hass-schule-news-reporterin-dolna-fpoe-parteiakademie-256322 (viewed 9 September 2014).
49 Nasar Meer and Tariq Modood, ‘For “Jewish” read “Muslim”? Islamophobia as a form of racialisation of ethno-religious groups in Britain today’, Islamophobia Studies Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, Fall 2012, 34–53 (38–45).
50 Martin Schulz, ‘Kooperationsbestrebungen rechtsextremer und rechtspopulistischer Parteien im Europa-Parlament’, in Stephan Braun, Alexander Geisler and Martin Gerster (eds), Strategien der extremen Rechten: Hintergründe—Analysen—Antworten (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2009), 474–87 (483–4).
51 Alessandra Mussolini, quoted in Martin Schulz, ‘Kooperationsbestrebungen rechtsextremer und rechtspopulistischer Parteien im Europa-Parlament’, in Stephan Braun, Alexander Geisler and Martin Gerster (eds), Strategien der extremen Rechten: Hintergründe—Analysen—Antworten (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2009), 486.
52 Ring Freiheitlicher Jugend, ‘Salzburger Deklaration: Europe und der Islam’, 10 December 2006, available on the Ring Freiheitlicher Jugend website at www.rfj-sbg.at/pages/SbgDeklaration.html (viewed 10 September 2014).
53 Sindre Bangstad, Anders Breivik and the Rise of Islamophobia (London: Zed Books 2014).
54 Diana West, ‘Yes or no to Islamization?’ (blog), 14 September 2008, available on the Diana West website at http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/455/Yes-or-No-to-Islamization.aspx (viewed 10 September 2014).
55 Austria Presse Agentur, ‘Wien als Treffpunkt für Europas Rechte: Türkischer EU-Beitritt soll verhindert werden’, 23 October 2010, available on the news.at website at www.news.at/articles/1042/12/280263/wien-treffpunkt-europas-rechte-tuerkischer-eu-beitritt (viewed 21 August 2014).
56 Andreas Mölzer, quoted in ‘Treffen der Rechtsparteien in Wien’, Der Standard, 21 October 2010.
57 Saskia Jungnikl, ‘Mölzer am Yasukuni-Schrein’, Der Standard, 20 August 2010.
58 ‘Europäische Rechtsextreme besuchten umstrittene Gedenkstätte’, Der Standard, 14 August 2010.
59 The Italian Lega Nord did not want to cooperate officially with the BNP due to the latter's ‘controversial image’. The leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin, said in July 2009 that he would try to cooperate with his colleagues from the FN and Vlaams Belang through ‘informal’ networks (Schmid, ‘Extreme Rechte im Europaparlament’).
60 Andreas Mölzer, quoted in Austrian Press Agentur, ‘FPÖ stellt Partnersuche im Europaparlament ein’, 16 January 2012, available on the Der Standard website at http://derstandard.at/1326502859934/FPOe-stellt-Partnersuche-im-Europaparlament-ein (viewed 21 August 2014).
61 Schulz, ‘Kooperationsbestrebungen rechtsextremer und rechtspopulistischer Parteien im Europa-Parlament’, 487.
62 Taras, Xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe, 109–92.
63 Bunzl, ‘Between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia’, 499.
64 Zick, Küpper and Hövermann, Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination, 161.
65 European Alliance for Freedom, ‘Political party manifesto: European elections 2014’, 11 December 2013, available on the European Alliance for Freedom website at www.eurallfree.org/sites/default/files/eaf-manifesto-eng.pdf (viewed 22 August 2014).
66 Stefano Allievi (ed.), Mosques in Europe: Why a Solution Has Become a Problem (London: Alliance Publishing Trust 2010).
67 Farid Hafez, Islamophober Populismus: Moschee- und Minarettbauverbote österreichischer Parlamentsparteien (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2010).
68 Häusler (ed.), Rechtspopulismus als ‘Bürgerbewegung’.
69 Max Blumenthal, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party (New York: Nation Books 2010).
70 Nathan Lean, The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims (London: Pluto Press 2012).
71 Farid Hafez, ‘Islamophobe Weltverschwörungstheorien … und wie Obama vom Muslim zum Muslimbruder wurde’, Journal für Psychologie, vol. 21, no. 1, 2013, available online at www.journal-fuer-psychologie.de/index.php/jfp/article/view/263/293 (viewed 22 August 2014).
72 Center for Security Policy, Shariah: The Threat to America (Washington, D.C.: Center for Security Policy 2010).
73 Willemien Groot, ‘Wilders at Ground Zero: no new Mecca’, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 11 September 2010, available at www.rnw.nl/africa/article/wilders-ground-zero-no-new-mecca (viewed 23 August 2014).
74 Tom Heneghan, ‘Europe far right courts Israel in anti-Islam drive’, Reuters, 20 December 2010, available at http://uk.reuters.com/article/2010/12/20/us-europe-islam-far-right-idUSTRE6BJ37120101220 (viewed 23 August 2014).
75 The FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache once called his party the ‘new Jews’, quoted in ‘FPÖ are the new Jews claims cartoon’, Austrian Times, 5 February 2014, available at www.austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2014-02-05/50431/FP%D6_are_the_new_Jews_claims_cartoon (viewed 23 August 2014).
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Farid Hafez
Farid Hafez is currently a lecturer at the University of Klagenfurt and the Muslim Teachers Training College in Vienna. He has been a visiting lecturer at Istanbul Univeristy and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University. He is the editor of the German Jahrbuch für Islamophobieforschung, and Islamophobie in Österreich (Studienverlag 2009), a collection co-edited with John Bunzl, received the Bruno-Kreisky-Award for the political book of the year. His latest publications include a monograph on the history of Islamic political thought, Islamisch-politische Denker (Peter Lang 2014), and (with Humayun Ansari) From the Far Right to the Mainstream: Islamophobia in Party Politics and the Media (Campus Verlag 2012). Email: [email protected]