From “Jewification” to “Islamization”: Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Austrian Politics Then and Now

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/reorient.4.2.0197
• Pages: 197-220
• Published date: 01 April 2019
• Date: 01 April 2019
• Author: Farid Hafez
• Subject Matter: orientalism,Islamophobia,anti-Semitism,right-wing populism,racism,political parties,Austria

ReOrient 4.2 Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals

University of Salzburg, Austria

FROM “JEWIFICATION” TO “ISLAMIZATION”:

ANTI-SEMITISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA IN

AUSTRIAN POLITICS

THEN AND NOW

Farid Hafez

Abstract: The content of right-wing populism is currently built largely upon Islamopho-

bic mobilization, whereas, before the Second Republic of Austria, anti-Semitism was the

principal content of populism in Austria. This article engages in a comparative discus-

sion of the anti-Semitic propaganda deployed by political parties before the rise of the

Austrofascist state and National Socialist rule in Austria and Islamophobic propaganda

in present-day Austria. Specifically, the article compares the anti-Semitic discourse of

“Jewification” that circulated between 1876 and 1934 with the current Islamophobic dis-

course of “Islamization,” which is used by political parties such as the right-wing popu-

list Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the Christian democratic Austrian People’s Party

(ÖVP), which together currently form the coalition government in the Republic of Austria.

This article comparatively investigates anti-Semitic and Islamophobic topoi to consider

what continuities and shifts have occurred within the imagining of the (Oriental) Jewish

and Muslim “other.”

Keywords: orientalism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, right-wing populism, racism,

political parties, Austria

Introduction

In several accounts published in the symposium series of the Leo Baeck Institute,

Werner Jochmann (1971: 409–510, 1976: 389–477, 1988) demonstrated the cen-

tral role that political organizations plays in disseminating anti-Semitism within

society. In particular, an investigation into Austrian Catholic anti-Semitism shows

that it is not a “milder form” of anti-Semitism, as is often argued, but is in fact quite

similar to the secular racialized and radical forms of anti-Semitism (Weinzierl

1970: 483–531). However, more attention is paid to the fathers of political anti-

Semitism, such as Georg Ritter von Schönerer, who was a leading figure of the

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pan-German and German nationalist movement in Austria and a radical opponent

of political Catholicism. He is considered to be one of the earliest examples of

the Austrian radical right (Whiteside 1975: 312). Peter Pulzer (2004) provides the

most comprehensive survey of the emergence of political anti-Semitism between

1876 and 1914, which covers Austria and Germany. Hermann Greive analyzed

anti-Semitism after World War I, showing that it was openly expressed within

Austrian Catholicism (Greive 1969: 79–81), in contrast to Germany, where anti-

Jewish prejudices were only manifested in a disguised or coded form. Anton

Pelinka (1972: 213–31) revealed that the anti-Semitism of the Christian politi-

cal camp during the Austrofascist regime differed in terms of its radical framing

but not in its similarities to the content of the völkisch National Socialist form of

anti-Semitism. One should also not forget that anti-Semitism was also present

in relation to the Social Democratic Party in Austria, within which many Jewish

people were leading party figures; these figures would sometimes struggle with

their Jewish identity being contested in the public sphere (Hanisch 2011). Anti-

Semitism was also widespread among the proletarian electorate (Wistrich 1987:

111–20). Rather than exploiting these sentiments, the Social Democrats, espe-

cially in Vienna, were the only political party that did not include anti-Semitic

declarations in its party program (Falter and Stachowitsch 2017b: 61–91, 76).

While anti-Semitism is a phenomenon, with deep roots in Europe and Austria,

that has anything but disappeared (Bergmann 2008: 343–62), it has, to some degree,

lost its central role in public propaganda (Bunzl 2005: 499–508). Moreover, the

far right has not only tried to position itself as the “new Jew,” a victim of the

system (Stoegner 2016: 484–504), but also shifted its strategic focus toward tar-

geting Muslims (Hafez 2014: 479–99). In Austria, the rise of Islamophobia in

party politics is very much connected to the right-wing populist Freedom Party

(FPÖ) entering into the opposition in 2005 (Hafez 2009: 105–25). This has

made the FPÖ, a party that is heir to the nationalist camp and which became

infamous under the leadership of Jörg Haider, the strongest force in spreading

Islamophobia. It also put the rest of the political parties under pressure to coopt

the far right’s Islamophobic claims, first and foremost the Christian democratic

Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and to a lesser degree the Social Democratic Party

of Austria (SPÖ) (Hafez 2010; Hafez and Heinisch 2018). This has even resulted

in the adoption of a new politics in relation to Muslims that discriminated against

them in comparison to other religious minorities (Hafez 2018). Although there

are numerous works that compare anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, thus far we

lack a comparison that combines the study of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

within Austrian party politics (Hafez 2016: 16–34). Accordingly, this contribution

takes a comparative historical approach to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia within

Austrian party politics. More specifically, by looking at political anti-Semitism