Full Description
This book presents a critical and empirically informed examination of Islamophobia and related issues of racism and nationalism in Germany today, with particular attention to the East/West distinction. The authors, representing several disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and media and literary studies, situate the topic in the global and German context of the 2015-16 "migration crisis" and its aftermath, and of the ongoing transformations seen in the postsocialist regions of the European Union.
Since the 2015-16 "refugee crisis," illiberal leaders and parties within Europe have instrumentalized Islamophobia in an attempt to dislodge the traditional political elites. Strikingly, such illiberal movements have been most successful in the formerly socialist areas of the EU. This is mirrored within Germany itself, where political formations with an Islamophobic agenda remain more popular in the East than in the West. This volume examines the reasons for this difference, including not only the ideological heritage of Soviet-dominated socialism but also the effects of western interventions in the formerly socialist areas in and beyond Germany since the end of the Cold War. Some Islamophobic and other hateful tendencies were in fact introduced from, and continue to prosper also, in the West.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.
Contents
Preface Introduction: Islamophobia in Germany, East/West 1. The east is just like the west, only more so: Islamophobia and populism in Eastern Germany and the East of the European Union 2. Building a new nation: anti-Muslim racism in post-unification Germany 3. Islamophobia East-West and the politics of hospitality in contemporary Germany 4. Gendered identities and German Islamophobias 5. 'The burqa is not us (wir sind nicht burka)': strategic Islamophobia and the mainstreaming of nativist appeals 6. Islamophobia and anti-Muslim feeling in Saxony - theoretical approaches and empirical findings based on population surveys
