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Crusades, Christ and Christmas : Islamophobia and the Bible in the European Far-Right after 9/11

Strømmen, Hannah M. LU (2023) In Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik 7(2). p.711-728
Abstract
What is striking in the twenty years since 9/11 is not only the renewed attention to religion in the Western public sphere but the forms this attention has taken. Suspicion towards Islam has intensified. Narratives in which the West and Islam are conflicting and clashing entities have become entrenched. In Europe, anti-Muslim rhetoric has reached fever-pitch in far-right movements. What has gone largely unnoticed, however, is the Bible-use that can be found in the programmes, protests and proclamations of far-right groups and actors. The British far-right organisation Britain First fosters one example in recent years of such Bible-use. Far from accidental or negligible, I argue that contemporary far-right Bible-use may look banal and even... (More)
What is striking in the twenty years since 9/11 is not only the renewed attention to religion in the Western public sphere but the forms this attention has taken. Suspicion towards Islam has intensified. Narratives in which the West and Islam are conflicting and clashing entities have become entrenched. In Europe, anti-Muslim rhetoric has reached fever-pitch in far-right movements. What has gone largely unnoticed, however, is the Bible-use that can be found in the programmes, protests and proclamations of far-right groups and actors. The British far-right organisation Britain First fosters one example in recent years of such Bible-use. Far from accidental or negligible, I argue that contemporary far-right Bible-use may look banal and even benign, but it masks toxic and violent attitudes to Islam. This Bible-use demonstrates the way references to religion have come to replace overt references to race in the Islamophobic discourse of the far right. In a post-9/11 context, I contend, where forms of Islamophobia take extreme and mainstream form, it is crucial that biblical scholars identify the function the Bible has in stoking divisions and drawing distinctions between a Christian West and an Islamic other. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
9/11, Islamophobia, biblical reception, far right, social media, Terror, Europe
in
Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik
volume
7
issue
2
pages
17 pages
publisher
Springer
ISSN
2510-1218
DOI
10.1007/s41682-023-00148-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
43e448b6-3621-4a2d-bff1-d263fed80878
date added to LUP
2024-03-29 12:41:46
date last changed
2024-04-15 15:13:37
@article{43e448b6-3621-4a2d-bff1-d263fed80878,
  abstract     = {{What is striking in the twenty years since 9/11 is not only the renewed attention to religion in the Western public sphere but the forms this attention has taken. Suspicion towards Islam has intensified. Narratives in which the West and Islam are conflicting and clashing entities have become entrenched. In Europe, anti-Muslim rhetoric has reached fever-pitch in far-right movements. What has gone largely unnoticed, however, is the Bible-use that can be found in the programmes, protests and proclamations of far-right groups and actors. The British far-right organisation Britain First fosters one example in recent years of such Bible-use. Far from accidental or negligible, I argue that contemporary far-right Bible-use may look banal and even benign, but it masks toxic and violent attitudes to Islam. This Bible-use demonstrates the way references to religion have come to replace overt references to race in the Islamophobic discourse of the far right. In a post-9/11 context, I contend, where forms of Islamophobia take extreme and mainstream form, it is crucial that biblical scholars identify the function the Bible has in stoking divisions and drawing distinctions between a Christian West and an Islamic other.}},
  author       = {{Strømmen, Hannah M.}},
  issn         = {{2510-1218}},
  keywords     = {{9/11; Islamophobia; biblical reception; far right; social media; Terror; Europe}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{711--728}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik}},
  title        = {{Crusades, Christ and Christmas : Islamophobia and the Bible in the European Far-Right after 9/11}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41682-023-00148-1}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s41682-023-00148-1}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}