A Populist Tide

A surging populist tide coupled with the rise of Islamophobia, is strikingly apparent with the presence of anti-Islamic rhetoric in electoral discourses. There are exponential increases in votes for anti-Islam political parties in national elections across the world. Rise of populism is posing a threat to the different facets of the liberal world order such as free market economy, pluralistic societies, freedom of practicing religion, freedom of immigration, etc. Populist leaders employ hyper-nationalist, protectionist, people-centric, xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric to attract citizens, giving them a sense of victimhood to condemn immigrants, Muslims, and racial minorities as threats to liberal democracy. However, it has been observed that populism is a driving force that is posing a threat to the very system it purports to protect.

Notably, after 9/11, Islamophobia has become a primary populist anti-paradigm in the far-right populist discourse, so much so that many scholars have termed it as “Islamophobic Populism” which is notorious for its exclusionary policies and for manipulating the grievances of the citizens. It capitalizes on identity lines, exploiting the gaps between “us” and “them” or “others”. Regrettably, Muslims have been considered as ideal type of “other” after 9/11. Since then, Islamophobia has been normalized in mainstream Western media and among right wing politicians, demanding to build walls, banning Muslims, and restricting religious freedom.

The phenomenon of Islamophobic populism functions as electoral strategy. The strategic logic of Islamophobic populism is to attract anti-Islamic voters and weaken the incumbent leaders or anti-Islam parties’ main opponents. The presence of the burgeoning literature on Islamophobia in the electoral discourses of anti-Islamic parties, such as French National Front, Alternative for Germany, Vox Party in Spain, Lega in Italy, Freedom Party in Austria, and the Dutch Freedom Party, shows that Islamophobia functions as a popular electoral strategy. These parties delineate Muslims and Islam as threats and maintain the rhetoric that Islam, as a religion and culture, is a threatening contrast to European/ Western values.

Pauline Hanson, leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist party, called for a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia, in 2016, disseminating anti-Muslim sentiments in her political discourse. She also called for banning the construction of new mosques and installing CCTV cameras in all existing mosques. Marine Le Penn, leader of the French National Front, also shares Anti- Muslims sentiments; linking immigration and militant Islamism and proposing to banish Muslims on French soil. Her party’s manifesto “Native French First” and racial stances against Muslims and other immigrants undermine the core political norms of liberal democracy, such as freedom of practicing religion and freedom of immigration.

Breaking political norms has also been the specialty of Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) who argues that Islam is “a dangerous totalitarian ideology”. Other populists want bans on minarets or burkinis, Wilders, determined not to be outdone, has gone so far as to demand a ban on the Qur’an. Moreover, the popularity of unanimously elected leader like Narendra Modi, with his extremist Hindutva policies against Muslims, Christians and Dalits, is testimony of employing Islamophobia as electoral strategy by anti-Islam parties not only in the West but also in the East.

The strategic logic of Islamophobic populism is to attract anti-Islamic voters and weaken the incumbent leaders or anti-Islam parties’ main opponents.

Due to hyper-nationalist policies of right-wing populist leaders, people around the world are not ready to accept outsiders in their country, neither do they tolerate people of other religions, castes or ethnicities. This is an extreme form of exclusionary populism where xenophobia and Islamophobia has reached such a level that hate- crimes are frequently committed against Muslims. The most glaring hate-crimes include many instances of Melee attack against Muslim women wearing headscarves in Canada, Australia and Belgium, the Christchurch Mosque attack in New-Zealand, the Jyllands-Posten cartoons controversy, defacing of the walls of a mosque in France’s western city of Rennes with Islamophobic graffiti insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H), and arson attack on Arrahma Mosque in France’s city of Nantes, etc.

The anti-Islam hate crimes also provoke protests among the Muslim populace. Protests erupted in Pakistan against the publication of blasphemous caricatures in France. Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as many other leaders of Muslim countries denounced French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments of not to give-up blasphemous graffiti depicting Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). Macron’s backing for blasphemous sketches has also outraged the entire Muslim world. Rapid emergence of Islamophobic populism and its global appeal has begun to dissolve socio-economic and political institutions of the liberal world order that has been maintaining the peace and holding the postwar world together. In this backdrop, there is a dire need for the international community to counter Islamophobic populism to sustain peace and harmony of the liberal world order.

The announcement to launch a joint TV channel to promote the narrative of Muslims to counter Islamophobia following the tri-lateral summit on the sidelines of the 47th UNGA session held in New York in 2019 between Prime Minister Imran Khan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad, was a step to bring peace and stability in the world. People must be made aware that Islamophobic populism is manipulated as electoral strategy by anti-Islam parties to gain competitive advantage vis-à-vis the incumbent leader in an electoral contest which erodes social cohesiveness and widens the gap between “us” and “others”.

In his book “The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom is in Danger and How to Save It” Yascha Mounk argues that to curb the rise of populism, citizens must work harder to build an inclusive patriotism that protects vulnerable minorities against discrimination while emphasizing what unites rather than what divides us.