Fear of Islam in Greece: migration, terrorism, and “ghosts” from the past

Abstract

The article explores the “fear of Islam” through a specific series of political debates about Islam and the future of the Greek-Orthodox national identity. The analysis is based on the method of qualitative content analysis, which makes use of thematic categories and draws on the proceedings of the Greek parliament. The main questions the article will try to address are: How have Greek political parties reacted to public demand for the construction of a mosque? What have been the rhetorical tropes they use? How have they capitalized on current and old fears about Islam? What have been the implications of this discourse on state policies toward Islam? Have there been any differences in this discourse over time? The analysis highlights the role of historical interpretations of Greek national identity and contemporary problems related to new waves of migration due to Greece’s place on the border with Turkey and with the broader Islamic world.

Keywords:

• Greece
• national identity
• political discourse
• Islam
• politics of fear

Notes

1 For more information see the UNHCR database http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php.

2 It should be noted that not all Muslims want an official mosque in Athens, since it raises issues such as who would control it, the background of the imam, the co-existence of Shiites and Sunnis, etc.

3 See www.hellenicparliament.gr.

4 According to the third article of the Greek constitution, the dominant religion in Greece is the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. There have been huge debates over what this means, but the prevailing interpretation is that the Orthodox Church of Greece is the official church. The law on relations between the state and the church gives the Orthodox Church a privileged role in public issues.

5 After the fall of Communism, most Balkan states witnessed a wholesale revival of Islam (Elbasani and Roy 2015a), at the intersection of grand narratives of national belonging, external agendas, and believers’ own evaluation of their religious identity (Elbasani and Tošić 2017).

6 The national census does not collect data on religious affiliation. Any estimate is based on the nationalities declared in the census and on unofficial data, for example from interviews with representatives of Muslim organizations.

7 All the sessions of the Greek parliament discussions are numbered with Greek letters, but an Arabic number follows in square brackets for the non-Greek reader.

8 LAOS was founded in 2000, Golden Dawn in 1980, and Independent Greeks in 2012.

9 The Halki Theological School was closed by the Turkish government in 1971. The building is currently used for conferences. The school was founded in the nineteenth century on the grounds of the Patriarchal Monastery of the Holy Trinity that had occupied the site for more than 1000 years.