Bridge Initiative Articles by: Farid Hafez Page 6

31 Jul 2019

The Second European Commission’s Meeting on Combatting Anti-Muslim Racism

From 24 - 25 June 2019, a workshop on synergies and good practices on tackling anti-Muslim racism and discrimination that was co-hosted by the European Commission and the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security of Spain took place in Madrid. This is the second of its kind following a meeting on 3 December 2018, where the European Commission hosted a high level conference on tackling intolerance and discrimination against Muslims in the EU. One hundred fourteen participants from civil society organisations and public authorities across all the EU Member States came together to make progress on cooperation to tackle intolerance, hate crime and anti-Muslim racism. The program included not only keynote speeches and round tables, but workshops where civil society actors, state officials and people from bureaucracy came together to exchange experiences, ideas, and best practices examples. read the complete article

03 Jun 2019 | Individuals

FACTSHEET: Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is a central figure in the transatlantic network of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam organizations and activists. She has co-organized the pan-European ‘Counter Jihad Movement,’ aligned with anti-Muslim activists and organizations in the U.S., and has been prosecuted for anti-Muslim speech. read the complete article

20 May 2019 | Individuals

Criminalizing Ramadan: Illiberal tendencies in Western democracies

Ramadan has long turned into a political object in Western politics. When Madeleine Albright first started to organize iftar (fast-breaking) dinners at the White House during the Clinton era, many Western governments in Europe started to follow her newly introduced tradition. Congratulating Muslims on the advent of Ramadan has become a political ritual for leaders of Western governments to show respect not only to the followers of the second largest religion in the world, but also to a growing and contested religious minority in their own lands. read the complete article

20 May 2019 | Politics

The Identitarian Austrian Freedom Party

The Identitarian movement has attracted a lot of attention since the white-supremacist terrorist at the Christchurch mosques made headlines, naming his manifesto – "The Great Replacement" – after a famous slogan of this movement. As the world would later get to know, the relationship was even financial. read the complete article

08 May 2019

The Jew, the Muslim and White Supremacist Terror

John T. Earnest is the name of the latest white supremacist to murder worshipers, this time in a Chabad synagogue in Poway, near San Diego, California. He shot four people, killing one, allegedly to save the white race, honoring Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist who killed 50 people in two mosques in Christchurch six weeks ago. He also claimed responsibility for an arson attack on a mosque in the nearby town of Escondido. Like New Zealand’s terrorist, Earnest claimed he had left a manifesto for the world, but his ‘manifesto’ was merely a nine-page anti-Semitic and racist rant. read the complete article