This book explores the anti-Islamic turn and expansion of the far right in Western Europe, North America and beyond from 2001 and onwards. Driven by terror attacks and other moral shocks, the anti-Islamic cause has undergone four waves of transnational expansion in the period since 2001. The leaders and intellectuals involved have varied backgrounds, many coming from the left, uniting historically opposed sets of values under their banner of a civilizational struggle against Islam. The findings presented in this book indicate that anti-Islamic initiatives in Western Europe and the United States form a transnational movement and subculture characterized by a fragile balance between liberal and authoritarian values. The author draws on a broad array of data sources and methods, including network analysis and sentiment analysis, to analyze the impact of the anti-Islamic expansion and turn at a macro level, and the theoretical implications for our understanding of the current far right flowing from this. Offering an overview of anti-Islamic activism, the book explores the background of their leaders and ideologues, provides an in-depth look at their ideology, online organizational networks, and the views expressed by their online members as well as which emotions and messages continue to drive their mobilization. The book will be of interest to scholars in the social movement field as well as political scientists, sociologists, and general readers interested in issues such as populism, extremism and understanding the ways in which the contemporary far right challenges liberal democracies.

This book is the first systematic, multicountry exploration of far-right Newspeak. The contributors analyze the ways in which contemporary far-right politicians, intellectuals, and pundits use and abuse traditional liberal concepts and ideas to justify positions that threaten democratic institutions and liberal principles. They explore cases of both far-right and right-wing thought in eastern and western Europe, the United States, and Canada. Subjects include well-known figures, such as Marine Le Pen, Tucker Carlson, Peter Thiel, Nick Griffin, Thierry Baudet, Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, and Viktor Orbán, and lesser-known names, such as the Czech politician Tomio Okamura and the Internet personality "Raw Egg Nationalist." The contributors examine these figures’ claims about hot-button issues, including immigration, Islam, race, Covid-19 policies, feminism, monetary policy, and free speech. The book demonstrates that mainstream politicians and intellectuals are at risk of losing control over the definitions of the very concepts, including equal rights, racial and ethnic diversity, and political tolerance, that undergird their vision of liberal democracy. It will be of interest to scholars, journalists, policymakers, political scientists, historians, political theorists, sociologists, and general audiences concerned about the sophisticated efforts of far-right and right-wing politicians and pundits to undermine the foundations of liberal democracy.

Social movement scholarship has been dominated, until recently, by work on progressive movements. Yet as far-right agendas, narratives, and actors increasingly occupy public space, it is important to recognize, make visible, and understand the important role of grassroots far-right mobilization in facilitating this rise. This book showcases recent scholarship on mobilization for and against the far-right in Europe and the USA, fills in gaps in empirical knowledge on right-wing mobilization, and serves as a means through which to test the robustness of existing social movement theory. Rich case studies covering mobilizing and countermobilizing in Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Tunisia, the UK, and the USA offer novel insights into this understudied area of political contention. Contributors follow a diverse range of approaches and lines of inquiry, meaning that readers will come away not only with a better picture of the dynamics of right-wing mobilization but also with a robust understanding of key areas of social movement scholarship. This book will be of interest to anyone wanting to better understand the rise of far-right movements, their role in contemporary contentious politics, and grassroots efforts to contest them. The chapters in this book were originally published in Social Movement Studies.

Europeanisation of the Contemporary Far Right explores the role of transnational European identity in far-right mobilisation strategies. Focusing on the national members of two trans-European far-right coalitions – Generation Identity and Fortress Europe – the author explores the extent to which European far-right extra-parliamentary actors Europeanise their mobilisation. Drawing on social movement literature, the book argues that national extra-parliamentary actors’ Europeanisation processes are influenced by their political and discursive opportunities and resources. Focusing on the groups’ mobilisation during the ‘refugee crisis’ (2015–2017), the analysis considers the groups’ frames, collective action, and coalition-building in the period, finding that the depth of the groups’ resources particularly affects their capacity to mobilise. This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and civil society actors in fields related to the far right, European studies, social movements, and migration.

This book is the first systematic analysis of the efforts of a broad range of contemporary far-right thinkers to popularize their critiques of liberal-democratic norms and institutions and make their ideas the subjects of sustained political and academic debate. The book focuses on outspoken thinkers in western and eastern Europe, Russia, the United States, Canada, and Australia. They include Alain de Benoist, Guillaume Faye, Götz Kubitschek, Pat Buchanan, Fróði Midjord, Jason Jorjani, contributors to the online magazine Quillette, and the elusive personality known as the Bronze Age Pervert. The book explores the diverse intellectual foundations of these thinkers’ positions, the similarities and differences in their ideas, and their prospects for influencing attitudes about democratic politics within their respective countries. It examines diverse movements and schools of thought, including the European New Right, Paleoconservatism, the Alt-right, Identitarianism, White nationalism, and antifeminism. Providing a much-needed global perspective, this book will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of populism, right-wing extremism, identity politics, fascism, racism, and conservatism.

The Routledge Handbook of Far-Right Extremism in Europe is a timely and important study of the far and extreme right-wing phenomenon across a broad spectrum of European countries, and in relation to a selected list of core areas and topics such as anti-gender, identitarian politics, hooliganism, and protest mobilisation. The handbook deals with the rise and the developments of far-right movements, parties, and organisations across diverse countries in Europe. Crucially, it discusses the main topics and issues pertaining to far-right ideology and positioning, and considers how central and less central actors of far-right milieus have fared within the given context. Comprising a wide range of subject expertise, the contributors focus on far-right organisations on the margins of the electoral sphere, as well as street-level movements, and the relationship between them and electoral politics. The handbook spans nearly twenty European country cases, grouped according to geographical/regional area. It includes case studies where the far right has gained increased momentum, as well as countries where it has been much less successful in mobilising public opinion and the electorate (e.g. Ireland and Portugal). Another important feature is the inclusion of street-level mobilisations, such as football firms, thereby expanding and updating existing research, which is primarily focused on political parties and organisations. Multidisciplinary and comprehensive, this handbook will be of great interest to scholars and students of Criminology, Political Science, Extremism Studies, European Studies, Media and Communication, and Sociology. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101029801.

This book explores social movements by analyzing an escalating spiral of tension between the Patriot movement and the state centered on the mutual framing of conflict as 'warfare'. By examining the social construction of 'warfare' as a principal script or frame defining the movement-state dynamic, Stuart A. Wright explains how this highly charged confluence of a war narrative engendered a kind of symbiosis leading to the escalation of a mutual threat that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. Wright offers a unique perspective on the events leading up to the bombing because he served as a consultant to Timothy McVeigh's defense team for eighteen months and draws on primary data based on face-to-face interviews with McVeigh. The book contends that McVeigh was firmly entrenched in the Patriot movement and was part of a network of 'warrior cells' that planned and implemented the bombing.

Combining insights from comparative politics, party politics, comparative political economy, and welfare state research, the book provides novel insights into how the radical right manufactures consent for authoritarian rule.

Europe sees itself as embodying the ideals of modernity, especially in relation to democracy and the respect for human rights. Faced on the one hand with the need for public recognition of a new population of Muslim identity, and the threat of violent radicalization on the other, Europe is falling prey to the politics of fear and is tempted to compromise on its professed ideals. Reflecting on the manifestations and causes of the contemporary fear of Islam gaining ground in contemporary Europe, as well as on the factors contributing to the radicalization of some Muslims, (Il)liberal Europe: Islamophobia, Modernity and Radicalization offers a diversity of perspectives on both the challenges to social cohesion, and the danger of Islamophobia encouraging a spiral of co-radicalization. Combining empirical studies of several European countries with a comparative account of India and Europe, the book analyzes vital issues such as secularity, domophilia, de-politicization, neo-nationalism, the European unification project and more. Spanning a variety of disciplinary approaches, the volume offers novel insights into the complex landscape of identity politics in contemporary Europe to widen the scope of intellectual inquiry. This book was originally published as a special issue of Politics, Religion & Ideology.