Farid Hafez, Author at Bridge Initiative

17 Nov 2022 | Policy/Law

Criminalizing Muslim agency in Europe: The case of ‘political Islam’ in Austria, Germany, and France

This article discusses the emergence of a discourse on ‘political Islam’ in the policy circles of European elites. It interprets this discourse on one hand as a manifestation of the further criminalization of Muslimness emanating from programs of countering... read the complete article

Editorial

19 Nov 2020 | Law Enforcement

Xinjiang and Kristallnacht in Austria: Freedom of Religion Under Threat

On November 9 of this year, the Austrian government commemorated Kristallnacht of 1938—known as the “Night of the Broken Glass”—a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and Austria that took place on... read the complete article

Editorial

15 Sep 2020 | Individuals

Institutionalizing the Surveillance of Muslim Activism in Austria

Austria is cementing its authoritarian policy of demonizing Muslims at an alarming rate. The ruling centrist-right, Christian-democratic Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP) attempted to close mosques in 2018 and implemented a school headscarf ban in 2019,... read the complete article

Editorial

03 Apr 2020 | Politics

Racism and the Terrorist Attacks in Hanau, Germany

On 19 February, 43-year-old Tobias Rathjen killed nine people of color at two shisha bars in Hanau, a small city near Frankfurt. He then returned home, killed his own mother and, finally, committed suicide. Before... read the complete article

Article

24 Feb 2020 | Terms/Tropes

Remembering Auschwitz, Deploying Islamopohbia?

Last month, political and religious leaders around the world commemorated the end of the Nazi cruelty, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp, the Konzentrationslager. The systematic industrial killing of six... read the complete article

Editorial

21 Jan 2020 | Politics

Germany: Muslim Political Engagement in the Age of Islamophobia

It was great news for the large minority of Germans with a Turkish background. Belit Onay was just elected as the first mayor of a big city, Hannover. He had ran for the Green Party... read the complete article

Editorial

14 Jan 2020 | Terms/Tropes

China’s attempt to change the Quran

Since the People’s Republic of China increased the repression of Uighur Muslims in late 2016, headlines in Western media have highlighted Chinese authorities’ discriminatory policies against Chinese Muslims in the Western region of Xinjiang. Maya... read the complete article

Article

09 Dec 2019

How Islamophobic Politics Shapes People’s Attitudes in Austria

From December 2017 to May 2019, Austria was governed by a coalition of the centrist-right Peoples Party (OVP) and the right-wing extremist Freedom Party of Austria (FPO). While the latter has been the traditional stronghold... read the complete article

Editorial

10 Nov 2019 | Politics

The Spanish VOX party: Another Major Anti-Muslim Force in European Politics

The Spanish VOX party: Another Major Anti-Muslim Force in European Politics According to the European Islamophobia Report, which I have been co-editing since 2015, Spain consistently ranks amongst the least Islamophobic countries in Europe. The... read the complete article

Article

04 Sep 2019

The Rising Far-Right in Eastern Germany

This weekend, two major German states will go to the ballots. Sachsen and Brandenburg, two politically quite different states, will elect the next state parliament. And the last polls made by the ZDF Polit Barometer reveal no good... read the complete article