Antisemitism spread by Austrian and Polish media outlets and Belgian politician, whilst Islamophobic narratives are spread by Belgian, UK and Greek media and French presidential candidate
In April’s media monitoring, we saw antisemitic narratives spread by an Austrian media outlet, whilst a Polish media outlet promoted an antisemitic book caricaturing Jews, and in Belgium, a local politician made an antisemitic post on Facebook inciting violence against Jews. Also in Belgium, a french-language media outlet promoted Islamophobic conspiracy narratives, whereas in the UK, a newspaper article promoted the stereotypical image of Muslim men as terrorists. In Greece, a media outlet amplified the Islamophobic comments of a government minister about the war in Ukraine and in France, presidential candidate, Marine le Pen referenced an anti-Muslim conspiracy narrative and pledged to ban the veil.
Germany/Austria – Alternative media outlet uses antisemitic dog-whistles of “globalist puppets and elites”
The Austrian media outlet AUF1 is spreading antisemitic conspiracy narratives and reproducing antisemitic dog-whistles related to High Finance. On a video published on 25th April 2022, AUF1 accused the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken of being a “globalist puppet” with close links to “globalist think tanks” with “influence on decisions in Washington”.
Another video published a few days earlier talks about “globalist elites run[ning] the world by controlling the financial system” and a “conspiratorial meeting” to establish the Federal Reserve. These terms are coded language that reproduce the idea of Jews as puppet masters, a historical antisemitic conspiracy theory which has been used over the centuries to blame Jews for the world’s wrongdoings and disasters. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter who killed 11 people in 2018 thought George Soros was controlling the world economy.
AUF1 was founded in 2021 as an alternative and independent TV station for German speakers. Although it is based in Austria, it is a point of reference for conspiracy theorists in Germany and it provides extensive media coverage of the country. AUF1 has almost 200,000 subscribers on Telegram.
Belgium – Molenbeek gains central stage again in anti-Muslim narratives
In the run up to the French presidential elections, Molenbeek, an underprivileged district with a large Muslim and migrant population in central Brussels, was frequently mentioned in Belgian media, often with racialised and anti-Muslim tones.
The French, far-right media outlet Livre Noir published a documentary promoting the Great Replacement conspiracy narrative presenting Molenbeek as the “Brussels Khalifat”, sparking a wide reaction on Twitter. The electoral debate, and its key themes such as migration and Islam, were particularly felt in Belgium too.
Conner Rousseau, president of Flemish social democratic party Vooruit, said to the weekly Humo that he does not feel like he is in Belgium when he travels through Molenbeek. While these divisive and anti-Muslim views of the neighbourhood have been expressed by far-right and right-wing public figures for years, this case highlighted how they are now spreading across the political spectrum.
On the TV programme "QR the debate", another politician, Gilles Verstraeten of the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, said that he can’t walk hand in hand with his male partner in Molenbeek. As research shows, these “discourses of unsafety for LGBTQ people in racialized-as-Muslim neighbourhoods rely on the image of the Arab/Muslim man as a threat” and the stereotype that Muslims are homophobic.
UK - The Sun Promotes Negative Views Of Muslims With Intensive Terrorism News Coverage
On 27th April 2022, the British tabloid, The Sun, published the article ‘HMP SHARIA: Convicted terrorists setting up Sharia courts in jails and flogging inmates who flout their strict Muslim code.’
The author reported the findings of an official investigation commissioned by the government revealing that high-profile inmates are using their 'celebrity' status in efforts to take over prison wings and radicalise jailed Muslims. The article says that convicted Islamic terrorists have been flogging inmates who flout their strict Muslim code.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab was reported commenting on this report, vowing to rip the protection of the Human Rights Act from terrorist offenders. While the findings of this review are a public interest story, research suggests that tabloids, including The Sun, have tended to present Muslims and Islam as a threat.
According to the Centre for Media Monitoring, “terrorism has become synonymous with Muslims and is the most recurring theme in the media relating to Muslims & Islam along with other conflict paradigms.” This article by The Sun adds to the many that depict Muslims in a negative light and contributes to their othering.
Greece – Media Outlet Promotes Development Minister’s Islamophobic Comments on Chechen Soldiers in Mariupol
The Greek, daily media outlet, iefimerida, published an article reproducing the Islamophobic views of the Minister of Development, Adonis Georgiadis, regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Georgiadis tweeted a controversial video posted on Telegram by the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, known as one of the most loyal allies of President Vladimir Putin, showing Chechen soldiers in the besieged city of Mariupol. In his comment, the Greek politician said: “I wonder all these fellow citizens who support the supposed Orthodoxy of Putin's Russia, how do they feel watching this video? A Christian city full of ‘Greekness’ before, now taken by the fighters of Islam in the name of Putin.”
In other words, Georgiadis claimed that Muslim Chechens are destroying the “Christianity” of Mariupol and questioned if it’s worth having Muslims in Ukraine to help Putin. Georgiadis is minimising the Russian invasion of Ukraine and making an irrelevant contraposition between two religions, portraying Islam as a threat.
Reducing the complexity of the current conflict, and the previous wars in Chechnya, to the destruction of Christianity in Ukraine by “Muslim fighters” is careless and misleading.
France - Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen promised to prohibit the veil in public if elected
Just before the second round of the French elections, the far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, delivered a controversial anti-Muslim speech in a TV debate against Emmanuel Macron. Le Pen promised to ban the veil in public if elected president.
In an attempt to defeat Macron, she accused her opponent of not being firm enough to implement an effective law to fight ‘Islamisation’ (a conspiracy narrative). Continuing with her anti-Muslim disinformation, Le Pen falsely claimed the "the veil is a uniform imposed by Islamists." This incident exemplifies the normalisation and mainstreaming of anti-Muslim views in the French public debate.
The ban on wearing religious symbols in public spaces would have a serious impact on religious communities in general and on Muslim communities in particular. As the organisation Human Rights Watch states, “the state should be neutral in matters of religion - an important guarantor of religious freedom […] But an aggressive secularism, that attempts to prevent individual manifestation of religion, such as bans that deny the wearing in public places of a manner of dress linked to a particular religious faith, undermines rather than protects this principle.”
Le Pen was defeated by Macron, who was re-elected with 58.5 percent of the votes.
Belgium - Local Councillor Calls for Violence Against Jews on Facebook
Hassan Aarab, councillor for CD&V (Christian Democratic and Flemish party) in the district of Deurne, Antwerp, posted a highly inflammatory antisemitic message on Facebook.
“You have good Jews and bad Jews, but the best Jew is still a dead Jew,” he wrote after calling the residents of Antwerp ‘dirty Zionists’.
Facebook removed the post for violating the platform’s community guidelines, and a formal complaint against him was lodged to the police, but his history in expressing antisemitic statements shows that he represents a threat to the Jewish community’s lives and wellbeing.
In 2014, Aarab was suspended from his political party and went to a three-year rehabilitation programme for claiming that “Hitler intentionally did not exterminate all Jews, so that humanity would realize why he hated and wanted to exterminate them.”
Aarab apologised to the Jewish community for these antisemitic remarks, but this recent case shows that he continues to spread hate and advocate for the annihilation of the Jewish community.
Poland – State-Funded Media Outlet Promotes Antisemitic Book And Claims It Contains ‘Dry Facts’.
The conservative media outlet, Media Narodowe, promoted the newest edition of the antisemitic book “Meet the Jew” by Polish author, Teodor Jeske-Choinski.
The book, which was first published in 1912, features 16 antisemitic caricatures of Jews on its cover. In the video on Media Narodowe’s YouTube channel, Przemyslaw Holocher, who is the owner of the publishing house, Magna Polonia, and is connected to the far-right National Movement party, claimed that the book contains deep psychological characteristic of the Jew. It lists attributes such as xenophobia, hatred towards other religions and sense of superiority and ungratefulness as the main features of the Jewish community.
His interviewer nodding in approval asserted that book could provide ‘a deeper cultural understanding’ of the Jewish diaspora. Media Narodowe is state-funded and part of the Independence March Association, a far-right group that organises the main annual march on Polish Independence Day.
GTTO partner ‘Never Again’ Association alerted the mainstream media about the promotion of this antisemitic book. Which led the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita to report on the case, sparking a backlash against Media Narodowe from other media outlets. In a ludicrous attempt to defend their position, Media Narodowe claimed that the book is not antisemitic, as it contains only ‘dry facts’.
