Farid Hafez, Author at Bridge Initiative

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

Article

26 Aug 2019

The Manifesto of the El Paso Terrorist

On 6 August, 2019, a white supremacist (Patrick Crusius) committed a terrorist attack that killed twenty-two people. Prior to the execution, he left a ‘manifesto’ for the public similar to the ‘manifestos’ written by other... read the complete article

Article

07 Aug 2019

Commemorating the Victims of Utøya and Remembering Islamophobic Violence

Eight years ago, on 22 July 2011, the bloodiest terrorist attack following the end of World War II took place in Western Europe and shook the Western world. In the year of the terrorist attack by Brenton Tarrant, who was inspired by Breivik’s violent actions, it is time to look back at what has happened with regard to racist violence that draws on anti-Muslim propaganda. read the complete article