Locals in the Greek island of Lesbos went from being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for welcoming refugees five years ago to hurling racist slurs today. On March 1st, a video made its appearance on the media. The location: the village of Thermi, in the Greek island of Lesbos. In the video, one can clearly observe… Continue reading “How Greece Went From Welcoming To Demonizing Refugees”
The radical right Counter-Jihad Movement has grown increasingly decentralized as it pushes Islamophobic rhetoric online. Following the events of 9/11, a strong cross-border anti-Muslim narrative started to emerge. The narrative refers to liberal values ( e.g. liberties, human rights, and religious and political freedoms) of the Western societies, as a civilizational inheritance that need to be protected.… Continue reading “Islamophobic Far-Right Counter-Jihad Movement Has Expanded”
The renaming of products has become an increasingly central issue in identity politics today and is often used by far-right groups to mobilize support. A sudden controversy has exploded in the Netherlands. In March, the Dutch department store HEMA began selling a traditional Dutch pastry under the name chocoladebal (chocolate ball) instead of moorkop (referring to the head of a dark-skinned… Continue reading “What’s in a Name? Rebranding Racist Legacies”
In the summer of 2017, the radical-right Identitarian Movement (also known as Generation Identity) launched their so-called mission Defend Europe. Chartering a ship, they wished to intervene in and halt NGO work to rescue refugees trying to enter Europe via the Mediterranean – mainly from Northern Africa. In March 2020, and against the backdrop of… Continue reading “Fighting ‘the Great Replacement’ in 2020: an Identitarian road trip to Greece and back”
With the anniversary of the Christchurch Mosque attack approaching, and following Brexit, is the Muslim community in the UK living in fear? s the United Kingdom faces a post-Brexit reality spurred by an unprecedented rise in support for radical right populist parties, I interviewed Imam Saleem Hussain from Medina Mosque in Southampton, to gain an… Continue reading “Conversation with an Imam: being Muslim in Post-Brexit UK”
The Pareto optimum is one of the best-known concepts in economics. It is named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian social scientist considered one of the founders of microeconomics. What is perhaps less know is that Pareto taught at the University of Lausanne (canton of Vaud), one of Switzerland’s oldest universities. In 1904, Pareto had an… Continue reading “Benito Mussolini, Dr. hc: Switzerland, the Fascist Temptation and the Populist Right”
The historical vision of the new man still animates many neo-fascist and neo-Nazi organizations that are rooted in the legacies of fascism. “The trenchocracy is the aristocracy of the trenches,” declared Benito Mussolini on the pages of Il Popolo d’Italia in December 1917. Reflecting on the new type of man emerging from the war, he… Continue reading “The New Man in Fascism Past and Present”
For many of those who are aware, Muslim communities included, Prevent is a common sense, social care approach to an ever-growing global phenomenon. It is difficult to frame Natalie James’ response to my original article avoiding as it does the very heart of the matter, that there are increasing numbers of young people for whom ideology is a… Continue reading “Preventing violent extremism: stepping out of our echo chambers”
Boris Johnson could benefit from the new strategy of the radical right in Europe of abandoning calls for withdrawal from the EU for gradually imposing its presence within Brussels. This week, the delegations of the European Union and the United Kingdom started the institutional meetings concerning the Brexit deal negotiations. The transition period during which… Continue reading “Europe’s Radical Right Can Help Johnson Get Momentum on Brexit Deal”
A new coalition agreement in Austria highlights how bigoted, far-right policies are being embraced by mainstream political parties in Europe. The results of the elections to the European Parliament in May 2019 have caused great concern in the various national governments of EU member states as well as in the European organizations: Although expected by opinion-makers and… Continue reading “The Normalization Of Far-Right Populism In Europe”