Sabrina Zajak: Our project RaMi - "from the margin to the center" - deals with right-wing populist interpretations of Islam. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which the discourses of the far-right movement contribute to a diffusion of a certain image of Islam and how this interpretation moves from societal margins to the center, so to speak.
Mirjam Weiberg-Salzmann: For example, we look at the extent to which interpretations set by populist actors are adopted by established political parties. Only in this way can we find out how the discourse spreads through civil society and how this feeds back into democracy itself.
Liriam Sponholz: Specifically, we observe whether right-wing populist actors are agenda-setters or agenda-surfers. That is, we question whether they put the issue on the agenda or utilize the issue in their own discourses.
Mirjam Weiberg-Salzmann: There is a certain spectrum of accepted arguments and patterns of interpretation within which we conduct our discourses in liberal democracies. What we find is that populist actors undermine these discourses and, with their illiberal argumentation, feed back strongly into the mainstream. If this leads, for example, to an institutionalization and normalization of intolerance, this can also have a negative impact on our democracy as a whole.
Politically, populist discourse may also find expression in legislative processes, for example, in questions of citizenship or the special attention that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution then pays to specific groups and places them into a negative interpretive framework. This is particularly problematic because it strongly contradicts democratic principles, which assume that all citizens are equal and free and that not every Muslim should be placed under the general suspicion of radical Islam.
Sabrina Zajak: To figure this out, we look at the historical starting conditions of right-wing populist interpretations and explore the antecedents of new Orientalism and the question of how it was taken up. We examine narratives around Islam, but also around Muslims as the 'others', which threaten the European model of modernity and thus contribute to a European identity construction. Based on this, we want to analyze which narratives have been taken up by right-wing populists after 9/11 and have been transported and disseminated up to the present. For this purpose, we apply a mass media discourse network analysis.
Liriam Sponholz: In addition, we evaluate media reports from quality media and pay attention to the key events that make Muslims the subject of media coverage. We compare how right-wing populists express themselves in quality media and in social media in order to understand how the logic of the media influences this instrumentalization.
Sabrina Zajak: You could say that there are two competing assumptions about how right-wing populist interpretations of Islam come about. On the one hand - and we currently observe this frequently in debates about radical Islam - it could be that certain actors shift their interpretations of Islam from the margins to the center. The counter-hypothesis is that the narratives and right-wing populist interpretations of Islam have always been anchored in the center of society and have only been made visible and brought to the margins in the last 20 years by social disputes.
The assumption here is that there has long been an underlying image of Islam that is strongly influenced by Islamophobic or anti-Muslim tendencies. In the last 20 years, whenever Islam has been discussed in the center of society, it has usually been in an anti-Muslim and racist context. This kind of discussion led to a polarization of society and thus also mobilized the margins. Basically, these mobilizations are more and more about gaining interpretive authority over what Islam actually is.
Sabrina Zajak: In the RaMi project, we make a European comparison with different countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain and look at the qualitative aspects - i.e. the contextual conditions of the media logics, but also their effects and consequences. On this basis, we ask ourselves what these discourses mean, for example, for practical political decision-making in the different countries.
Liriam Sponholz: In France, we can observe very well which key events have led to Muslims making the headlines. This was, for example, after terrorist attacks, such as on the Bataclan, the September 11 attack, or even after the Charlie Hebdo case.
Sabrina Zajak: In our research project, we look at the so-called media attention surges following these events, but also evaluate calmer periods. Ultimately, we try to determine what the debate looks like and what effects it has when it reaches its media peak and when it subsides again. In France, for example, this can be seen quite well in the debate about "Islamo-Leftism." Progressive actors who discuss issues such as anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia are being accused of legitimizing radical Islam.