The European Extreme Right and Islam: New Directions?

In particular since the turn of the millennium, social scientists have identified anti-Muslim sentiment as a key feature of the European extreme-right. This article will discuss the history and validity of the term ‘Islamophobia’, and will probe into the development of the theme of ‘Eurabia’ in extreme-right wing ideology. The author will analyze the manner in which visions of a Muslim settlement and ‘takeover’ of Europe have the potential to create a cross-national reconfiguration of extreme-right ideology, a thematic shift, and a movement toward convergence between different sides of the ideological spectrum. The author argues that this ideology is not static, and that its potential new direction challenges significant assumptions of the current literature on the extreme-right