Preliminary Programme

Wed 23 April
    8.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 24 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 17.30

Fri 25 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 26 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

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Wednesday 23 April 2014 11.00 - 13.00
ZA-2 POL32 (Old) Antisemitism in the 21st Century? France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Austria
Hörsaal 24 basement
Network: Politics, Citizenship, and Nations Chair: Albert Lichtblau
Organizers: - Discussant: Margit Reiter
Bernadette Edtmaier : Antisemitism in Austrian Turkish communities
Today’s Austrian Muslim population is estimated at over 500,000 (6.2% of the population). Similar to Germany, the majority (185,000) has a Turkish background, an equal number has its roots in former Yugoslavia, and 100,000 are from the Russian Federation, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Contrary to France, the UK, ... (Show more)
Today’s Austrian Muslim population is estimated at over 500,000 (6.2% of the population). Similar to Germany, the majority (185,000) has a Turkish background, an equal number has its roots in former Yugoslavia, and 100,000 are from the Russian Federation, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Contrary to France, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, only a small number of physical attacks on Jews have taken place in Austria since 2000. Violent assaults, mostly targeting Jewish memorials and symbols, have been committed usually by perpetrators from the extreme right. The main problem is still a more subtle form of anti-Semitism expressed in anti-Jewish attitudes and statements. It is of further interest that, as in Germany, most of the Muslims who have participated in anti-Israel demonstrations had a Palestinian and Arab background, whereas the Turkish minority did not demonstrate in the streets. Only the Gaza flotilla incident in June 2010 seems to have mobilized Austrian Turks to identify with Palestine. For the first time, Turkish flags appeared at anti-Israel demonstrations in Vienna.
The paper analyzes, why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was obviously not yet able to mobilize the Turkish community. As I will argue, an explanation of this new development is the active part played by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in the Middle East conflict, provoking a major crises with Israel by calling “Palestine today an open-air prison” (Davos 2009) and supporting the Gaza flotilla. At an UN conference in Vienna in 2013, he condemned Zionism as a “crime against humanity.”
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Helga Embacher : Antisemitism and “Homemade Terrorism”. Debates about Antisemitism and Radical Islam in the UK
In Great Britain, the debate about Muslim anti-Semitism started later than in France and initially focused on Londonistan and on “hate preachers” from Arab countries misusing their freedom of speech to demonize Israel, Jews and the US. Historian Robert Wistrich even sees London as the “world center for Muslim anti-Semitism.” ... (Show more)
In Great Britain, the debate about Muslim anti-Semitism started later than in France and initially focused on Londonistan and on “hate preachers” from Arab countries misusing their freedom of speech to demonize Israel, Jews and the US. Historian Robert Wistrich even sees London as the “world center for Muslim anti-Semitism.” After the terrorist attacks in London in July 2005 (7/7), Muslim anti-Semitism—for the first time in Europe—had to be discussed in connection with “homemade terrorism” carried out by young men of middle-class Asian background. As a result, Antisemitism is increasingly used as a criterion to judge the ability of Muslim representatives and organizations to be democratic and to differentiate between radical and mainstream Islam.
In my paper I want to demonstrate, that, though radical hate preachers and Islamic fringe groups are not representative of British Islam, Muslim reactions to the Intifada and the war in Iraq showed that, concerning the image of Israel, there is a very thin line between radical and mainstream Islam. Many representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and prominent Muslim intellectuals do not accept Israel’s right to exist and regard suicide attacks on women and children in the heart of Israel as an act of resistance. Since Muslims are confronted with the critique that the community shows no sensitivity to Muslim anti-Semitism, Muslim voices fighting against anti-Semitism in their own community will also be considered.

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Alexandra Preitschopf : Voix des Banlieues (Voices of the Suburbs). Political Criticism, Self-victimisation and Muslim Anti-semitism expressed in French Rap Lyrics
In contemporary France, problems of integration and social inclusion are often discussed under the term “question des banlieues”. In this context, the expression “antisémitisme des banlieues” (“anti-Semitism of the banlieues”) is used to describe a phenomenon, which can especially be observed since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in fall ... (Show more)
In contemporary France, problems of integration and social inclusion are often discussed under the term “question des banlieues”. In this context, the expression “antisémitisme des banlieues” (“anti-Semitism of the banlieues”) is used to describe a phenomenon, which can especially be observed since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in fall 2000. Anti-Semitic incidents, verbal insults and physical attacks against Jews or Jewish institutions increased significantly in France. Young Muslims (often with a background from the Maghreb or from Sub-Saharan Africa and living in banlieues)-often themselves victims of racism and social exclusion-are regarded as main perpetrators. Obviously, “the Jews” seem to constitute a convenient scapegoat for their own social situation. Some French Muslims also identify with other Muslim victims, especially with the Palestinians. In consequence, anti-Zionist discourses (partly deriving from radical Islamism) seem to influence their formation of anti-Semitic stereotypes as well.
The proposed paper wants to illustrate how this complex socio-political situation is reflected in French “Banlieue-Rap”: Considering that many French rappers have grown up (or are still living) in banlieues and declare themselves as Muslims, the following questions should be taken into consideration: How are the French State, leading politicians as well as social conditions in the French suburbs are perceived and portrayed? Which references are drawn to global “Muslim suffering” in the context of international conflicts, especially the Middle-East-conflict? How are Palestinians and Israel characterized and are there references to religion/Islam and to a global “Muslim identity”? And finally: Can French rap lyrics be analysed in a wider context of ongoing French debates about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, about “national identity”, secularism and multiculturalism?
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Annemarike Stremmelaar : What is Islamic about “Muslim Antisemitism”? Turkish-Dutch Antisemitism since the 1980s
Since 2000 new forms of antisemitism in Western Europe have been attributed to actors identified as “Muslim”, first-generation migrants or their offspring with ancestries in Muslim-majority countries. In the Netherlands antisemitism became associated with the Moroccan-Dutch, but the Turkish-Dutch, a group with a similar migration history and religious background, have ... (Show more)
Since 2000 new forms of antisemitism in Western Europe have been attributed to actors identified as “Muslim”, first-generation migrants or their offspring with ancestries in Muslim-majority countries. In the Netherlands antisemitism became associated with the Moroccan-Dutch, but the Turkish-Dutch, a group with a similar migration history and religious background, have been implicated as well. A recent television documentary featuring Turkish-Dutch youngsters who expressed their hatred against Jews has fed into the debate on antisemitism within Turkish circles. Antisemitism within both Moroccan and Turkish communities has often been related to Islam and Muslim identity, regardless of the nature of antisemitic insults or attacks. An examination of manifestations of antisemitism emanating from these circles from the 1980s up to today shows the different ways in which these are related to Islam. After all, the first Moroccan and Turkish migrants to participate in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations of the 1970s and 1980s using anti-Zionist and sometimes antisemitic discourse were supporters of leftist organizations rather than adherents of Islamic movements. The latter manifested themselves in the course of the 1980s and 1990s with a revolutionary Islamist ideology which saw the Jews as its main enemy. Whereas this remained a marginal movement, after 2000 anti-Jewish sentiments were voiced more openly and more frequently by various Moroccan-Dutch and Turkish-Dutch actors. In these various cases, Islamic religious notions took on different, larger or smaller roles, suggesting that that the meaning of the term "Muslim antisemitism" is not self-evide (Show less)



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