The Dialectics of Exclusion: How Islamophobia and Far-Right Extremism Co-Produce Each Other in Northwestern Europe

Abstract:

This talk explores Islamophobia and Far-Right extremism as dialectically co-produced phenomena. Drawing on over 400 interviews and a survey of 5,501 participants across the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, the analysis finds a ‘reciprocal cycle of radicalisation’, wherein state securitisation validates Far-Right narratives of cultural threat, simultaneously reinforcing exclusionary logics. 

The lecture identifies three critical mechanisms sustaining this exclusionary dialectic: 1/ spatial politics and the ‘ghetto’ narrative; 2/ ‘pedagogical Islamophobia’ and the fostering of systemic injustices; and 3/ the ‘shared crisis of masculinity’, in which young male alienation is exploited across communities. Breaking this cycle requires decoupling social policy from security logics, implementing spatial justice, and addressing the recognition gaps that fuel the dialectic of exclusion.

Bio:

Professor Tahir Abbas, FRSA, FAcSS, is Professor of Criminology and Global Justice, as well as Director of the Centre on Radicalisation, Inclusion and Social Equity, at Aston University. He was formerly Professor of Radicalisation Studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University in The Hague. His research explores the governance of extremism, the regulation of religious diversity, and the intersections between policy and everyday urban life.

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