A New Extreme-Right Party in Belgium, Antisemitic attacks in Poland, Belgium, Islamophobic Articles published in Greece and the UK and the Great Replacement Conspiracy Theory Promoted in France.
In November’s media monitoring, we saw a New Extreme-Right Party launched in Belgium, as well as an article spreading antisemitic anti-vax information. Hungarian TV broadcast Islamophobic myths and the Great Replacement Theory was promoted on French TV. Whilst we saw anti-Muslim articles published in the UK and Greece and an antisemitic broadcast by a far-right influencer in Poland.
Belgium – New extreme-right party launched in Wallonia
A new Belgian extreme-right movement, ‘Chez Nous’ (‘Our Home’), was launched at the end of October, but its inaugural meeting was cancelled by the local authorities.
Due to happen in Herstal, Wallonia, in a place kept secret until a few hours before due to security reasons, the meeting was banned by the acting mayor Jean-Louis Lefèbvre. ‘Chez Nous’ had invited other far-right personalities such as Tom Van Grieken, the president of the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang, and Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right French party National Assembly.
‘Chez Nous’ has a website and a YouTube channel where videos are regularly uploaded. Their political ideas are in line with the manifestos of other far-right populist and identitarian parties in Europe. ‘Chez Nous’ states to be “against massive immigration” and “against Islamism.” Without defining what these terms exactly means, ‘Chez Nous’ singles out migrants from Northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa accusing them of “transforming the face of our neighbourhoods in just a few decades.”
The party advocates for increasing securitisation in the country, criminalising Muslim migrants and contributing to further stigmatisation.
Belgium – Anti-vaccine conspiracist website spreads misinformation and antisemitic comparisons
Frontniews, an anti-vaccine conspiracist website, is known for repeatedly publishing antisemitic content and promoting the Great Reset conspiracy ideology, but this time they spread blatant misinformation.
In an article published on 4 November 2021 and titled “Jewish Court: it is absolutely forbidden to administer the Covid-jabs to children, young men and women,” Frontniews claims that a Jewish court in New York prohibited the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to young people, especially women and children, and pretended the court was an authoritative voice within the broader Jewish community.
The fact-checking website AFP examined the claim, which has widely spread on social media and blogs, and stated that the ruling did not come from a widely recognized Jewish legal authority at all, and that leading rabbinical authorities in both Israel and the United States have endorsed vaccination. Interviewed by AFP, the director of Beth Din of America, one of the most prominent rabbinic courts in the USA “said it had no connection with the entity that issued the ruling opposing vaccination" and that they do not know any of the signatories of the document. Other antisemitic content on Frontniews website uses photos of the Auschwitz concentration camp to illustrate articles on alleged side effects of vaccines.
As a recent Get The Trolls Out! report highlighted, these parallels are grossly inaccurate and constitute a serious form of minimisation of the horrors of the Holocaust.
Hungary – State television fuels unfounded fears on Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe
On 28 November 2021, the Hungarian Public Service Television M1, and its website Hirado, broadcast an inflammatory news story fuelling unfounded fears around Islamic terrorist attacks during the Christmas holidays.
Titled “Spöttle: The threat of terror may increase as Christmas approaches,” the news bulletin claimed that there is an increased danger of attacks in Europe due to “pressure of migration.” Further, it stated that the level of terrorism is proportional to the extent of public Christmas celebrations.
As a source, M1 and Hirado used Georg Spöttle, one of the ‘national security expert on terrorism’ that state television use to support the Hungarian government’s propaganda against migration. Spöttle, an analyst at the Nézőpont Intézet Foundation, claims that Muslim asylum seekers “are being re-mobilized to carry out terrorist attacks.”
The news story makes an explicit connection between migration and terrorism which has been repeatedly proven wrong. M1 and Hirado also suggest that Muslims are against Christmas, which is a false accusation often used to incite hatred against Muslims.
France – ‘Great Replacement’ creator Renaud Camus interviewed on national TV
The French nationalist novelist Renaud Camus, known for his far-right views and white supremacist ideologies, was a guest on Ivan Rioufol's TV Show, broadcast on CNEWS on 31 October 2021.
During the show, the writer defended his conspiracy ideology, "The Great Replacement", and defined the migration of Muslims and people of other ethnic backgrounds to France "a crime against humanity”. In 2014, Camus was convicted for public incitement to hate crime and violence based on race and religion.
Despite the sentence, he continues to spread his supremacist views, with the help of the media such as CNEWS. The TV show not only legitimised his views by inviting him as guest, but the host, Ivan Rioufol, did not challenge or question any of his anti-migrant statements.
It is also concerning that, during the show, Camus supported Eric Zemmour's candidacy to the French presidential election, defining him as a hope to “save French identity” against the “invasion” of minorities.”
Since Renaud Camus developed his Great Replacement conspiracy theory in two books in 2010 and 2011, this ideology has influenced several white supremacist terrorist attacks such as the deadly mosques shootings in Christchurch in New Zealand in 2019.
Poland - Far-right journalist Ziemkiewicz makes a false and dehumanising portrayal of the Polish Jewish community
Rafal Ziemkiewicz, Polish far-right writer and author known for his anti-Muslim, antisemitic and homophobic views, has accused the Jewish community in Poland of being “historical exploiters” and “German spies” during the occupation of the country by Germany.
The far-right author went so far as to justify the anti-Jewish pogroms, claiming that it was necessary to “get rid of these exploiters” in order achieve the “emancipation of Polish people.” This is a false and harmful portrayal of the Jewish community. Ziemkiewicz also used horrific, dehumanising words, echoing the way Nazis referred to Jews. These vile antisemitic slurs were expressed on a video on 28 November 2021 on his YouTube channel, which attracts millions of followers. This episode specifically received 65,000 views on the first day of being published.
The video has been reported to YouTube for justifying anti-Jewish violence and dehumanising language, but it is still available online.
In October 2021, Ziemkiewicz was denied entry to the UK “due to [his] conduct and views which are at odds with British values and likely to cause offence.”
UK – Tabloids fuel hatred against Muslim asylum seekers with accusations of fake Christian conversions
On 14 November 2021, a man carrying a homemade bomb died outside Liverpool Women's Hospital. The attacker, Iraq-born asylum seeker Emad Al Swealmeen, converted from Islam to Christianity in 2017, after his application for asylum was refused a few years before.
When reporting this story, several British tabloids reports suggested that converting to Christianity is a way to “trick the asylum system,” fuelling misunderstandings and hatred against Muslim asylum seekers.
The Daily Express published an article claiming that asylum seekers convert to Christianity on a five-week course in a bid to avoid deportation and accusing the Church of England of being “hopelessly naïve” for accepting conversions. As a source, the Daily Express used the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based security think thank with links to the British and international far right.
An article published in The Sun also reported that in the past few months, several asylum seekers have “used Christianity conversion as part of a “Pray to Stay” bid to win their cases.” This article uses sensationalistic and alarmist tones that frames asylum seekers as people who abuse the system and use religion to obtain their goals.
While it might be true that some asylum seekers might have converted to Christianity to have better chances to stay in the UK, it is difficult to say if a conversion is genuine or not, and these accusations incite mistrust and hatred against an already vulnerable group.
Greece - Kathimerini newspaper publishes opinion piece saying it’s natural and logical to be afraid of Islam
The Greek conservative daily Kathimerini published an opinion piece admonishing against political correctness, including the usage of the concept of Islamophobia.
Signed by writer Takis Theodoropoulos and published on 14 November 2021, this article states that Islamophobia should not have a negative connotation, since it is natural and logical to be afraid of Islam and Muslims.
Theodoropoulos claims his right to say that Islamic terrorist attacks are a threat to Western civilisation. Islam, and Muslims, is depicted as a monolith and portrayed as the enemy. The journalist is completely dismissing the structural discrimination and stigmatisation that Muslims face in Greece and the West, and the impact that anti-Muslim hatred has in their lives.
In his tirade against political correctness, the author also expresses bigoted statements on LGBTQ+ people and Roma people.
The article is written in a sensationalist style. Theodoropoulos’s are not backed by any source. Rather, the journalist’s strategy is to confuse the reader with the technical aspects of language and grammar, to manipulate and convince the audience that Islam equals terrorism.
Germany - Right-wing populist blog slanders mosque's call to prayer
The Journalistenwatch, a right-wing populist blog, published an article on the 16th of November titled: “Merkel’s deputy Braun wants Germany to Islamize: Muezzin calls everywhere!”
The report condemns Helge Braun, the head of Chancellery and member of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), for supporting the council of Cologne’s decision to permit mosques to broadcast muezzin calls for prayer for five minutes every Friday.
The city of Cologne has one of the most prominent Muslim communities in Germany, with an estimate of 35 mosques. The city’s Mayor Henriette Reker said: “if in addition to the sounds of the church bells, we also hear the call of the muezzin, it shows that in Cologne diversity is valued and lived.”
The Journalistenwatch journalist criticises this decision using a pejorative and misogynist tone and explicit Islamophobic and derogatory terms, for example saying that the message of the call to prayer is "problematic". The language used emphasises how horrified the writer is with the idea of the ‘Islamification of Germany’.
The article is disrespectful, sensationalist, and dangerously framed to cause division and hate towards Muslims. The publication is written from a white supremacist angle which posits Christianity as the only norm, insults policymakers as ’submissive’ and critiques the implementation of inclusive policies as a threat to German society.
