Islamophobia and Translations of Securitization in the UK, France and Italy contributes to research on Islamophobia by exploring how three Western European mainstream left parties (the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party, and the Italian Democratic Party) have securitized Islam. While there is abundant research on right-wing Islamophobia and on the right-wing nationalist appropriation of liberal-progressive themes, the securitization of Islam by left-wing parties has been mostly neglected.

In this talk, Farid Hafez discusses his latest book on the legacy of colonialism in the governance of Islam in contemporary Austria and Germany. Based on the experience of Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Hercegovina and the German Kaiserreich’s rule in Tanzania, Togo, and Cameroon with respect to its Muslim subjects, he shows the continuities and ruptures with the Nazi Reich’s incorporation of Muslims in its polity as well as contemporary Islam policies or Islampolitik in postwar Austria and Germany.