#Islamexit: inter-group antagonism on Twitter

ABSTRACT

While analyses of Twitter have shown that it holds democratic potential, it can also provide a venue for hate speech against minorities. The articulation of opinion-based identities, the tendency to homophily, and the use of emotional discourses can indeed help spread verbal violence on Twitter. This paper discusses group polarization on Twitter through Mouffe's distinction of agonistic and antagonistic politics, as elaborated in the 2013 book “Agonistic: Thinking the World Politically”. The theory is supported by a practical example: a qualitative analysis of Islamophobic tweets sent in the aftermath of the 2016 British referendum on European Union membership, which is commonly referred to as ‘Brexit’. Following the UK’s decision to leave the EU, there was a surge of Islamophobic attacks on Twitter. My analysis reveals that anti-Islamic sentiments were articulated in terms of complex identities referring not only to religion but also to ethnicity, politics, and gender. The paper shows that these tweets are antagonistic in character because they prevent the dialogic participation of Muslims and propagate symbolic violence rather than engaging in constructive conflicts.

KEYWORDS:

• Twitter
• Islam
• religion
• UK
• Brexit
• Islamophobia

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my friends and colleagues from the Center of Religious Studies at Ruhr University for providing me with an intellectually challenging environment while writing this article. In particular, I would like to mention Dr. Frederik Elwert, Dr. Anna Neumaier, and Dr. Anna-Kostanze Schröder who gave me precious feedback on the article. My article greatly benefited from the editing of Nicola Morris. I would also like to thank Dr. Mauro Gatti for invaluable support of many kinds.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Giulia Evolvi is a postdoctoral researcher in Religion and Media at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. She obtained her PhD in Media Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, United States, where she was affiliated with the Center for Media, Religion and Culture, and also holds a Master’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of Padua, Italy. Her research interests are religious change in Europe, digital media, Islam, and Islamophobia [email: [email protected]].

ORCID

Giulia Evolvi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6928-5903

Notes

1 http://freedomdaily.com/uk-gives-obama-big-fk-votes-leave-eu-muslim-refugees/

2 https://www.rt.com/uk/346627-khan-body-shaming-adverts/

3 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-news-updates-remain-twitter-muslim-racist-abuse-a7101491.html