![[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
Anti-Semitism, Homophobia, and Islamophobia: The Rising Far-Right in Poland
November 11 is commonly known as Independence Day in Poland. Government and political leaders usually commemorate the reinstatement of sovereignty at the end of World War I. For political leaders, it is a celebration of the re-birth of Poland in November 1918, after Poland had been erased from the political map after Prussia, the Habsburg…
In Austria, the problem is not the far-right party
This op-ed by Bridge Initiative Senior Research Fellow Farid Hafez originally appeared in Al Jazeera. Last year, many observers who were worried about the rise of the far-right in Europe and the United States felt relieved after the former leader of the small Green Party, Alexander Van der Bellen, won Austria’s presidential elections by a small margin. He managed…
Swinging to the right: Austria bans face veils
This op-ed by Bridge Initiative Senior Research Fellow Farid Hafez originally appeared in Daily Sabah. It seems quite intentional that the ban on full-face veiling in public places, infamously known as the so called “Burka Ban,” came into force on Oct. 1, when Austria largely becomes cloudy, the sun fades away, and with all that, the high-time…