Panic about ‘Islamification of Europe’ Amplified by Media Across the Continent, Islamophobes Platformed in German and British Newspapers, Jewish People Told to Go Back Where They Came from in France

In February’s monitoring, we saw various news outlets publish a variety of anti-Muslim stories promoting the debunked ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory, comparing Muslims to Satanists and continuing to target Muslim women for exercising bodily autonomy, mainstream newspapers in Germany and the UK giving a platform to high-profile anti-Muslim figures and ‘identitarian’ groups in France using social media to tell Jews and Muslims to go back where they came from.

Belgium – Inappropriate Image of Muslim Women Used to Promote Article

One of Belgium’s public broadcasters RTBF published an online article, titled ‘Coronavirus in Belgium: Food Banks Are Crumbling under Demand.’ To promote the article on their front page, RTBF used an image of two Muslim women in headscarves. On the article itself, a more generic image is used of someone packing food donation boxes, which is much more relevant to the article. The issue here is not with the article itself, but with the image used to promote it. What do two women wearing headscarves seeming to be taking a break and checking their phones have to do with the demand on food banks? It seems a very odd choice, and whilst we cannot assume any intention behind the choice of this specific image, it does play into a common narrative of portraying Muslims as a burden on society. ENORB, the Get The Trolls Out! Partner who identified the incident, has filed a complaint with RTBF. This is not the first time ENORB has come across and taken action on cases like this; you can read more about these past cases here.

Germany – Prominent Weekly Newspaper Gives Unchallenged Platform to AfD Politician

German weekly newspaper and online blog Junge Freiheit published an article this month, titled ‘Greens in Gelsenkirchen Want Public Call to Prayer of the Muezzin.” The piece, which is relatively short, starts off with explaining the situation in the Gelsenkirchen, where a debate has started around a public muezzin (Muslim call to prayer) taking place during times of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Green Party brought this proposal to the Integration Council, explaining that due to feelings of isolation, especially amongst older populations, a muezzin could offer people a sense of familiarity and routine, as the ringing of church bells has done for many of Christian faith. According to WDR, a German public broadcasting institution, the proposal was supported by several Christian and Jewish communities in the city.

To comment of the case, Junge Freiheit decided to give a platform to AfD (Alternative for Germany, nationalist and right-wing populist political party) politician Gabriele Walger-Demosky, who is very critical of the proposal. She is quoted as saying: “'No one must tolerate being forcefully harassed with loudspeaker-amplified religious confessions. That shouts like 'There is no other God but Allah' do not contribute to integration goes without saying. This is less the practice of religion and more an openly declared claim to power.” This quote is a reflection of the hateful narrative that believes Muslims are occupying Germany, leading to a conflict between Muslims and non-Muslim Germans. This is negligent and dangerous because this narrative leads to the perception of an alleged dangerous situation – where one might feel the need to defend with violence. Worryingly, Junge Freiheit decided to only quote the AfD politician, giving no voice to a counterargument. The article received over 17,000 interaction on Facebook, a large amount for such biased content.

Greece – Islamisation Claims Made on Nationalistic Greek Website

‘Islam Is a “Veil of Terror” for Europe Despite the Measures,’ is the headline for an article published in February on the news and opinion website Pentapostagma. The website is known for its nationalist views and often hosts Islamophobic and xenophobic content. The piece makes many claims which are in line with the common Great Replacement and Islamisation narratives. In essence, the author is claiming that Muslim communities are growing at a “dangerous” pace, and that this is a “threat” to Europe and its people. The article claims: “We are watching the Islamization of Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden. Muslims live in fenced communities, mainly in the suburbs, which in fact do not obey the laws of the country.” The piece does reference a report by the French Directorate-General for Homeland Security (DGSI) but provides very little context or further explanation. The author seems more concerned in invoking fears around Muslims living in Europe and spreading dangerous narratives than they do about providing actual data or talking to experts on the topic.

Hungary – News Platform Uses Fearmongering Tactics to Spread Anti-Muslim Claims

Sonline, a regional news site for Somogy county in Hungary and part of the government-owned newspaper network, published an article titled: “The cross had to be taken off, but Muslims could wear the headscarf.” The article references a case in Sweden, where a man was told to remove his cross necklace due to safety protocols at his workplace. The author of the article states: “In the warehouse where the man worked, the rule was that workers could not wear watches, jewellery, or other accessories due to safety regulations. George Tannouri also signed an agreement to do so, in which he agreed to follow the company’s regulations. However, the man still does not understand why the necklace hidden under his T-shirt would pose a danger, while the employer had no problem with the hijab.”

The article then continues to explain that the man, Tannouri, felt discriminated against due to his religion and the cross he was wearing. There are a few things to note here. Firstly, the main source of the article is news agency V4NA, an agency which Get The Trolls Out! parner CIJ recently published a research report on that revealed how V4NA frequently uses manipulative news summaries. Their stories are often completely independent in space and time, distorted for their own purposes and are then combined into one piece, creating a false phenomenon. The content is often alarmist and sensationalist. Several state-owned media platforms in Hungary regularly publish content from V4NA, which are either completely unedited or using elements of it in their own articles. You can read the full report here. The case itself seems mainly related to company policy; however, in this case it has been used to spread an anti-Muslim narrative, framing the case as being the direct fault of Muslims. The lack of credible sources and sensationalist claims makes this one of many alarming articles in the Hungarian media.

UK – The Times Gives Platform to Controversial Melanie Phillips

In an article in The Times, titled ‘Trying to stop extremism isn’t Islamophobic,’ author Melanie Phillips discusses the newly appointed reviewer of the British anti-radicalisation program Prevent, William Shawcross. Many have objected to the appointment of Shawcross, who has made negative remarks about Isam in the past. There has been much discussion around the issue, and therefore it is only natural that The Times, a well-known national newspaper, covers it. However, their choice of author for the piece is extremely questionable. Melanie Phillips is a British author who writes for various platforms, including The Times, The Jerusalem Post, and The Jewish Chronicle. She mainly covers political and social issues and is known for her conservative perspective. She is also known for having strong anti-Muslim views, which can be found in her writing time and time again. You can read more about past incidents involving Phillips here. Not only is it troubling that Phillips is continually given a platform, but especially on this topic the choice is an unprofessional one from The Times.

Poland – Sputnik News Compares Muslims to Satanists

The Polish branch of Sputnik News, a Russian state-owned news agency, published an article about a recent film produced by Patryk Vega, titled Eyes of the Devil. The film deals with the issue of kidnapping and human trafficking. The article on Sputnik News explores whether, according to the author Tomasz Dudek, the events portrayed in the film happened in real life. Dudek writes: “Vega is shocked at the price of human organs and presents a vision of the world where Satanists and Muslims participate in kidnapping and trafficking in human beings. It is quite a stereotypical view of the world. Is it real? This is happening!” The mention of Muslims in this article and comparing them to Satanists and attributing human trafficking cases to them is presented with no context, clarification or data. Instead, it seems like an attempt at making a sensationalist claim about Muslims rather than actually exploring the issue of human trafficking. Something similar was noted by our Polish monitor last month, where during an interview a prominent Catholic writer claimed that Muslims are similar to Satanists. It has the potential to become an extremely troubling trend in Poland, and one we plan to keep our eye on within our monitoring.

France – Génération Identitaire and Nemesis Continue to Push Hateful Narrative in France

This month, video footage surfaced showing Pierre Larti, the former spokesperson of Génération Identitaire (Generation Identity), presenting the theory of ’remigration’. According to Larti, the Jewish people should ‘go back to their countries’. Specifically, he states: "I'm just saying that, as an Identitarian, every person has to put down roots in his country, including Jews (...) I suggest you go back to your country". Remigration is a far-right concept which refers to the idea that non-white immigrants should be promoted or forced to ‘return’ to their supposed place of origin, regardless of citizenship status. Larti here is directly invoking this hateful narrative, and also using it to spread antisemitism by suggesting specifically that Jewish people should ‘go back’, despite France having a long history of Jewish communities living in the country. This comes as Génération Identitaire is facing a dissolution procedure, initiated by the French Home Office. We explained last month the troubling history of the Génération Identitaire movement, which you can read more about here. This happened in the same month that Nemesis, a French feminist-identitarian group, denounced the supposed ‘Islamisation’ of France. Nemesis has links to Génération Identitaire and has a past of talking about ‘remigration’ and the ‘great replacement’.