Islamophobia in the mainstream

Mehdi Hasan in this week’s New Statesman reflects on the local and European election results which have brought far right parties to power across Europe.

Hasan mentions various politicians from the mainstream parties whose anti-Muslim conduct or utterings have given succour to the more explicit Islamophobia espoused by far right parties.

He echoes sentiments expressed by former Communities Minister, Shahid Malik, on Muslims being the ‘New Jews’ stating ‘anti-Semitism is now taboo in mainstream political discourse in a way which Islamophobia isn’t’.

Looking at the copious amount of disparaging media coverage in recent months, whether on halal meat, niqab, segregated seating or Muslim schools, one is not at all at pains to understand how it is that the far right have been able to translate their anti-Muslim invectives into electoral gains.

Two years ago the New Statesman published a cover story featuring Anders Breivik arguing that it was time to put mainstream Islamophobia on trial. Two years on, how much has changed?