Between anti‐Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on the new Europe
Author(s)
Publication Name
Publication Date
Abstract
The apparent resurgence of hostility against Jews has been a prominent theme in recent discussions of Europe. At the same time, the adversities of the Muslim populations on the continent have received increasing attention as well. In this article, I attempt a historical and cultural clarification of the key terms in this debate. I argue against the common impulse to analogize anti‐Semitism and Islamophobia. Instead, I offer an analytic framework that locates the two phenomena in different projects of exclusion. Anti‐Semitism was invented in the late 19th century to police the ethnically pure nation‐state; Islamophobia, by contrast, is a formation of the present, marshaled to safeguard a supranational Europe. Whereas traditional anti‐Semitism has run its historical course with the supersession of the nation‐state, Islamophobia threatens to become the defining condition of the new Europe.
Topics
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Original Language
Volume/Issue
32(4)
Page Number / Article Number
499-508
DOI
Link
Link to article (paywalled), Between anti‐Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on the new Europe
Bibliographic Information
Between anti‐Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on the new Europe. 2008: 499-508. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1525/ae.2005.32.4.499