Antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ incidents occurred in Poland and Hungary, Islamophobic articles were published in Greece, Belgium and the UK and antisemitism from a German anti-vax doctor.

In July’s media monitoring, we saw an antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ article published in Hungary and a Polish MP endorsing a TV influencer who made antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ statements and in Germany, a doctor gave an antisemitic rant during a video interview. in Greece we saw an Islamophobic article about “Islamic Police”, in Belgium Islamophobic articles were published in french and dutch language media, as well as anti-Muslim hate published in the UK.

Greece – Ta Nea Newspaper Publishes False Story on “Islamic Police terrorising Athens”

The Greek newspapers owned by the Lambrakis Press Group - Ta Nea, To Vima, and In.gr, one of the most visited news websites in Greece – published a highly inflammatory article claiming that gangs of extremists, which they call “Islamic police”, are enforcing sharia law among Muslim migrants in the centre of Athens.

The article alleges that groups walk around with clubs and beat up people who don’t respect the Islamic law, including women who don’t wear the headscarf properly and shop owners under their control. Using hyper-sensationalistic language, the article portrays a false image of violence in the capital, spreading lies about Muslim migrants.

The news site Bloko.gr wrote: “it is more than obvious that […] criminal acts […] are labelled [by Ta Nea] as religious fanaticism, without any proof at all”. The police officer quoted in the article as a source seems to contradict himself while trying to find a connection between crimes and Islam. The quote used in the article says: “There are many more [incidents] that are either hidden or that constitute fraud or robbery. But they have clear religious characteristics.”

The news site The Press Project called the Ta Nea’s front page “an outburst of xenophobia” and quotes the words by a lawyer involved in the lawsuit against Golden Dawn: “Islamophobic vulgarity that takes your breath away on today's front page of the newspaper Ta Nea. The rumours about ‘Islamic police’ and ‘sharia’ are taken from the fascist sewers to cover up real trafficking of women with the participation of police officers, which are being revealed these days. How much lower will Ta Nea fall?”

Hungary – Public Service Media Smears Soros and the LGBTQ+ Community, in Targeted Attacks Against Minorities Ahead of Elections

Hirado.hu, the official news site of the Hungarian public service broadcaster (MTVA), published an article slandering both the LGBTQ+ community and the Hungarian born Jewish billionaire and philanthropist George Soros.

Specifically, Hirado focused on the work that George Soros and his son Alex do to support migrants and LGBTQ+ rights. Using hyperbolic language and antisemitic tropes, the article depicts a distorted image of civil rights activism in Europe. “Dutch Liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte […] [is] talking about forcing Hungary to its knees in connection with the child protection law”, states the journalist. This was a reference to the fact that EU leaders and Rutte confronted Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban over a homophobic law that bans schools from using materials seen as promoting homosexuality.

The article also uses antisemitic coded language against George Soros, in line with Hungarian government’s campaigns in the recent years. He is referred to as a “speculator” influencing global politics behind the scenes for his own financial gains. The article mentioned Soros’ support to Black Lives Matter, accused by Hirado of “drowning the US in street terror”.

The portrayal of Jewish people as the string-pullers who want to undermine the established order is an age-old antisemitic trope. This article is a mouthpiece of the conservative Hungarian government which, through laws and media propaganda, is now targeting both the LGBTQ+ community and George Soros, in preparation for the 2022 parliamentary elections.

Poland – Antisemitic and Homophobic Statement by Model Sparks Further Anti-Jewish Comments and Neo-Nazi Language

The Polish model Samuela Gorska has publicly supported the far-right Confederation Party (Konfederacja), expressing dangerous antisemitic and homo-transphobic views. “I don’t want Jewry either, I don’t want LGBT, I don’t want many things that are currently here […] Only Konfederacja […] ensures normality”, she said to explain the reason for her support.

The video, posted on the social media profiles of Konfederacja, was removed, but a screenshot was tweeted by Konfederacja MP Janusz Korwin-Mikke. In his tweet, he said: “Look, there are sensible women who get what is most important in the KONFEDERACJA policies. And it’s clear we must fight against Judeo-communism in a very tough way, because Jews are usually very intelligent, so Judeo-communism is the most dangerous branch of communism!”

The myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, that is the accusation that Jews invented and promoted Bolshevism and Communism, was widely present in Nazi propaganda, with horrific consequences for Jews. This antisemitic trope is still used today by the far right in attacks centered on an alleged ‘cultural Marxism’ and political correctness.

According to this conspiracy theory, Jewish communist intellectuals want to subvert Christian culture and provoke feelings of guilt among the majority white population. This incident shows the extent to which antisemitism and homophobia has permeated popular culture. Further, the fact that there has been a reaction to the model’s statement, and not to Konfederacja politicians’ comments, demonstrates how normalised anti-Jewish rhetoric is in the Polish political sector.

Belgium – Haouach Affair: La Libre Gives Voice to Man Who Asked Government Commissioner to Remove the Headscarf ‘to Respect Neutrality’

This month, the French-language newspaper La Libre continued covering the case of Ihsane Haouach, whose appointment as the Government Commissioner at the Institute of Equality for Women and Men sparked an uproar in June.

Haouach received support from the Ecolo party (Green party), but was attacked by the Flemish nationalist opposition, and the liberal Reform Movement (MR) party. Mainstream French-language media hosted a number of opinion pieces arguing that her appointment goes against “the neutrality of the state” because she wears a headscarf.

On 6 July, La Libre published an opinion piece by Corentin de Salle, director of Centre Jean Gol, a think tank of the Mouvement réformateur (MR) party. De Salle was given a platform to explain why, before an official meeting at the end of June, he requested Haouach not to wear the headscarf when sitting on the board of directors of the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men.

This piece contains fallacious arguments about neutrality which claim that if someone wears a hijab then they cannot do a good job because they are “showing their preference for one group”. The argument is misleading because the supposed neutrality of the state is based on the Christian faith or Western traditions and values. The argument is also misleading because, by using the metaphor of a referee wearing the uniform of one of two competing football teams, it implies that there is a conflict or competition between two groups. Finally, the argument is also stigmatising because it openly discriminates against Muslim women.

On 9 July, Haouach resigned due to the intensification of violent personal attacks against her.

Belgium – Doorbraak Publishes Article Rife of anti-Muslim Hate by Vlaams Belang Leader Van Rooy

The Flemish-language news site Doorbraak published an article titled “'Woke Islamism' is a symptom of an Islamising society”. The author is Sam van Rooy, MP and party leader of the nationalist party Vlaams Belang, known for his anti-Islam positions.

Starting from the Haouach affair that has been widely debated in Belgium, van Rooy uses quotes from Muslim activists and researchers (Dyab Abou Jahjah, Afshin Ellian, Dalia Mogahed and John Esposito) to back his view of Islam as inherently political and oppressive. These statements are taken out of context and manipulated to subvert and undermine the scholars’ arguments and research.

This article contains a variety of anti-Muslim narratives, from the Great Replacement conspiracy ideology, to accusations that all Muslims are violent and barbaric, which are false and dangerous. Van Rooy also mentions a survey by VTM-Nieuws and Humo, saying that “in Flanders 1 in 5 Muslims – 80,000 Muslims! – understands the Islamic State and the way this Islamic terror organization is taking action”. The author says these are very worrying numbers, hinting that thousands of Muslims could be future terrorists.

In fact, the survey, conducted by the company iVOX in 2016, only used a representative sample of 500 Muslims from Flanders and Brussels and the questions asked were inherently ambiguous and misleading.

UK – UnHeard Magazine Spouts Hatred on Islam Through Conspiracy Narrative on Da’wa and ‘wokeism’

The online magazine UnHerd published an article by journalist Ayaan Hirsi Ali titled “Why Islamism became woke - Extremists are using progressive rhetoric to fool the West”.

Like the article by van Rooy on Doorbraak (above), this piece claims that ‘Islamism’ is co-opting the Western awareness of issues of discrimination and social inequality (‘wokeism’) in order to spread and dominate the West. Specifically, Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that, after years fighting Islamic terrorism, da’wa – or the practice of conveying the message of Islam to non-Muslims – is the “new and more subtle foe” for the West. The author deceives the readers by saying that calling someone to Islam is used by extremists “to fool the West”, suggesting that, through da’wa and its “alliance with progressive rhetoric”, Muslims are Islamising the West (a false conspiracy narrative known as the Great Replacement).

These accusations, which target both left-wing activists and Muslims who are fighting against systemic racism and inequalities, are becoming more frequent in the right wing circles, especially in France and Belgium, through the popularisation of the term ‘Islamo-leftism’ used “an ideological weapon [...] to discredit a political community” (see the full CNRS study here). The author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has expressed deeply Islamophobic views in the past. In 2007, interviewed by Reason, she said that “we are at war with Islam” and that it should be “crushed militarily and in all forms”.

Germany – Anti-Vaxx Microbiologist Compares Nazi Germany to Israel

Screenshot from an article on Tagesschau — *Screenshot from an article on* *Tagesschau*

Sucharit Bhakdi, German doctor and epidemiologist who has been campaigning against vaccinations, expressed antisemitic statements in a video interview dated April 2021.

The interview was published in July on a website that denies the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic, but is not available online anymore except for some excerpts on Attila Hildmann's channels.

Bhakdi is heard saying that Jewish people have escaped the evil of Nazi Germany, “found their own country and made something even more evil than Germany has ever been”. In this antisemitic rant, he also said that Jews learnt the evil very well and are implementing it. With these comments, Bhakdi is implicitly accusing all Jewish people to be responsible for what the state of Israel does, as well as explicitly comparing the horrors of Nazi Germany to Israel (Holocaust inversion).

Although criticism to the Israeli government's policy regarding the Palestinian territories is not always antisemitic, this comparison is antisemitic, as it is offensive towards Jewish people, other than inappropriate and wrong. The representative for antisemitism in Berlin Sigmount Königsberg reported Bhakdi on grounds of incitement of hate against Jewish people. Bhakdi is the founder of a new German political party called dieBasis, and is running as a candidate in the 2021 German federal election.