As I sat down this morning and switched on my computer. I couldn’t help but notice the headline in the Spectator, ‘The Islamophobia’ problem. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that the author was Douglas Murray. In his latest tirade of anti-Muslim scaremongering, Murray was contemplating the roots of Islamophobia. For Murray, Islamophobia – in… Continue reading “Islamophobia is not Fiction or a Harry Potter Fantasy: It’s Racism and it’s time we accepted that”
Is it entirely unreasonable to expect that Italy’s populists in power, though unavoidable, will end up like many governments before them – mugged by harsh reality? One of the most famous clichés in Italian contemporary political historiography is the phrase, lifted from Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa’s novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), “For everything to stay… Continue reading “Matteo Salvini – Italy’s salvation?”
For anyone paying attention, the radical right is on the march. Recent years have been more favorable to their fortunes than at any time since the end of World War Two. True, much of this is driven by demographic change in western Europe and the US, and elsewhere; by appalling acts of terrorism that rightly… Continue reading “Paging Mr Aaronovitch: The Radical Right doesn’t need any more help from the mainstream”
Ukip’s recent autumn conference saw interim leader Gerard Batten unveil a host of radical new policies, including all-Muslim prisons; restricted migration from ‘Islamic’ countries; the end of hate crime prosecution and laws which criminalise discrimination; an NHS ‘health card’ which would be denied to foreigners; and an end to ‘LGBT inclusive’ classrooms in schools. These… Continue reading “UKIP may have taken a far right turn – but it has always been a home for extremism”
The terms ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘Anti-Muslim hate’ are used regularly in news coverage of certain events. These have most recently involved incidences of a car ram-raiding worshippers outside a mosque in London, and in the depiction of Muslims in the press more generally. However the definition of ‘Islamophobia’ is contested within academic literature. The term entered… Continue reading “Anti-Muslim Hate: The Definition Problem”
This article is the third in a series on using social network analysis to explain the structure of extremist online communities and events. The paper that this article is based on will be presented at the 10th International Social Informatics Conference on September 26, 2018. Back in 2017 I began collecting and analyzing social media… Continue reading “Understanding the Network of Anti-Muslim Groups on Facebook”
Just as neo-Nazis in America have tried to rebrand themselves, the same is happening with the Generation Identity (GI) white supremacist movement in Britain. In a recent article in the Sunday Times, journalist Andrew Gilligan claimed the Generation Identity (GI) movement in Britain was looking to ‘rebrand’ the radical right and thereby ‘normalize’ its extremist… Continue reading ““Hipster Fascists”: The Normalization Of The Radical Right Isn’t Just Happening In America”
Islamophobia, minaret and burqa bans have become commonplace in Europe. Wearing a burqa or niqab in public spaces became illegal in France and Belgium in 2011; in Latvia it was banned in 2016, although only 3 women wore it in the whole country. In Italy it has been illegal to cover your face since 1931… Continue reading “Burqa Bans and Intolerance: The New Normal”
Having worked in the probation service for over 16 years, I was always exposed, and privy, to the ugly realities of individual and collective drivers for the radical right. However, the punishment and rehabilitative ideal at a practitioner level was far different to that of building resilient communities and engaging civic society groups in my… Continue reading “The Many Faces of the Far Right”
In 2015, the ‘refugee crisis’ was a pressing issue facing European societies. Now, it has become the main vehicle for mobilizing the far right. Three years ago, Europe faced its largest influx of migrants since the wars in former Yugoslavia. A seemingly endless flotilla of unseaworthy boats attempted to cross the Mediterranean, as desperate people… Continue reading “How The Refugee Crisis Fuels Radical Right-Wing Extremism”