![[Farid Hafez]](https://bridge.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-04-at-10.45.01-AM.jpeg "Farid Hafez")
The Bridge Initiative is a multi-year research project on Islamophobia housed in Georgetown University.
The Bridge Initiative aims to disseminate original and accessible research, offers engaging analysis and commentary on contemporary issues, and hosts a wide repository of educational resources to inform the general public about Islamophobia.
Research & Resources
Is ACT for America really a grassroots organization?
Isabelle Canaan recently completed her MPhil in Politics (Comparative Government) at the University of Oxford. Her Masters thesis explored social movement trajectory, employing a case study of ACT for America. Using interview and primary source data, Canaan argued that the dual-hatted nature of ACT’s protest cycle explains the group’s attempts to maintain a grassroots presence while…
Sweden’s ’Moderate’ Far Right Has a Nazi Problem
This op-ed by Bridge Initiative Senior Research Fellow Farid Hafez originally appeared in Haaretz. Sweden, a strong welfare state, has traditionally been a society where opposition to racism is instinctively considered part of decent conduct. Boasting a high rate of political participation (with an 86 percent turnout rate for the last national elections), the Scandinavian…
Austria’s next Islamophobic policy: Banning the hijab in kindergarten
This op-ed by Senior Research Fellow Farid Hafez originally appeared in Daily Sabah. When the Christian-democratic conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) together with the right-wing populist Freedom Party (FPÖ) formed a coalition government last December 2017, a new regulation was announced. The government argued that it would ban the hijab for Muslim pupils from kindergarten…