In what is surely just a well-timed coincidence, the European Parliament will debate “Islamist entryism” on the third anniversary of the major Hamas attack on Israel. A day later, on 8 October, they will vote on whether there needs to be an “EU strategy” to counter forms of Islamic “influence” in Europe.
Seeing that Islam has been part of Europe for just about ever, that would have to be quite a strategy, indeed.
On the album of racism’s greatest hits, Islamophobia is the track that Western political and media elites can’t seem to get enough of. Unlike other forms of racism that they at least pretend to care about combating, Islamophobia serves as the hard underbelly rationalizing everything from deportations to extrajudicial drone strikes.
Even as European policymakers throw Muslims a fig leaf of protection, they undermine what little credibility they have earned by officially sanctioning moral panic of civilizational erasure.
Officially, European policymakers are concerned with violent extremism and radical movements. In reality, from Hollywood action movies to post-9/11 shenanigans of the “war on terror,” to vicious repression of pro-Palestine voices, the neo-imperial politics of Western states are shot through with a general suspicion of every Muslim—or could-be Muslim.
Our episode looks at the origins, development, and dynamics of Islamophobia. We trace how Orientialism is alive and well in the heart of the establishment European worldview and shapes so much of it.
Have a listen to our latest episode and let us know your experience and how you see things. For further reading, don’t miss Shada’s great new essay about what the EPP is up to:
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NB: Transcripts are auto-generated and subject to errors.
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