Islamophobia Across the Atlantic: Trump, Europe’s Far Right, and the Place of Civil Society

Dr. Farid Hafez, Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project

This talk discusses the emergence of Islamophobia in Europe and the USA and its specific role in party politics. It discusses the announcement and introduction of Trump’s anti-Muslim policies at the backdrop of precedent policies in Europe. This talk will put Trump’s anti-Muslim politics in a global context, looking at the ‘Muslim ban’, the criminalization of Muslim organizations, and other GOP policy claims from the perspective of transnational networks. At the same time, Hafez discusses the placement of current protest in the implementation of anti-Muslim politics. Although we can speak of a “global post-racial culture” (S. Sayyid) that has taken hold of Western societies, imagining them as post-racial, Hafez argues that the long-standing history of racism in the USA also implies much more resistance to overtly racist speech and acts. In contrast, the wide consent of a post-racial European imaginary allows European dominant societies to implement anti-Muslim legislation without major facing much dissent.

Farid Hafez, Ph.D. is a researcher at the University of Salzburg, Department of Political Science. Hafez has been teaching at numerous universities in Austria and beyond (Indonesia, Turkey, Germany, USA). He has been Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in 2014 and is currently Botstiber Fulbright Visiting Professor for Austrian-American Studies. He is the editor of the Islamophobia Studies Yearbook (www.jahrbuch-islamophobie.de) and since 2015 co-editor of the European Islamophobia Report (www.islamophobiaeurope.com). Hafez serves on the advisory board of the project ‘The Bridge Initiative’ (Georgetown University) that extends education about Islamophobia to the public. He has received the Bruno-Kreisky-Award for the political book of the year for his anthology Islamophobie in Österreich (Studienverlag 2009) co-edited with John Bunzl. He has more than 50 publications. His last publications include an anthology on young Muslims in Austria: “Jung, Muslimisch, Österreichisch. 20 Jahre Muslimische Jugend Österreich” (New Academic Press, 2016).