Revisiting Lepanto: the political mobilization against Islam in contemporary Western Europe

ABSTRACT In recent years, the place of Islam in Western European society has become a central political issue, particularly on the far right of the ideological spectrum. Parties as diverse as the Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP), the Lega Nord, the Dansk Folkeparti and the Vlaams Belang have mobilized against the ‘Muslim invasion’, launching campaigns against the building of mosques and minarets, the integration of Muslim immigrants and the recognition of Islam as a religion of equal status. Betz and Meret discuss how parties such as the SVP have framed the question of Islam in terms of culture, values and identity. This has allowed them to put themselves forward as defenders of fundamental liberal values, such as individualism, secularism and gender equality. Betz and Meret also advance an analytical framework that might allow us to put contemporary Islamophobia in Western Europe in a larger historical and transnational context. Their central argument is that the current political mobilization against the ‘Islamization’ of Western European societies is part of a larger ‘quest’ for a European identity.