ANALYSIS - Neurotic anxiety, Islamophobic narrative in Europe

By Asli Nur Duzgun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Hate speech targeting Muslim minorities in hate narratives surfacing in Europe began to be directed toward the Islamic religion with a holistic perspective.

Issues described as a "clash of values" have evolved into hostility toward religion, starting with Muslim foreigners who are unwelcomed to the "homeland" that is Europe. Such aggression and hostility, which will trigger the reopening of discussion about the conceptualization of Islamophobia, is recognized as a new type of anti-Semitic wave directed against Islam and its followers.

The perception of "an enemy" formed via the narratives of hatred of Islam and Muslims, which feed into each other, stigmatizes Muslims as "inferior" and places them at the center of xenophobic, aggressive and neo-racist hate speech, while these hateful messages are instrumentalized by far-right political parties and radical groups within Europe.

Anti-Islamic incidents that popped up one after another, especially in Norway, Sweden, Germany, England and France, also reveal the pathological neurotic anxiety presented in a group of people, triggered by such hate narratives that evolved into neo-racism and the existential insecurities arising from this anxiety.

Such populist narratives and alienation efforts that emerged with far-right parties in Europe are accepted by part of societies, however, the socio-psychological background of this acceptance is often overlooked. It is a fact that the failure to make correct diagnoses parallel to developments will lead to the failure of not being able to find the right treatment method.

Anti-Islamic provocative actions in Europe increased after Rasmus Paludan, leader of the far-right political party Hard Line (Stram Kurs), burned the Qur’an in Malmo, Sweden at the end of August 2020.

A far-right group in Oslo, Norway, also a member of the “Stop Islamization of Norway” or SIAN, tearing the pages of the Qur’an and insulting Islam and the Qur'an caused great reactions, following growing tension between Muslims and far-right groups in Sweden.

Subsequently, burned pages of the Qur’an with hate speech containing threats written on it, as well as bacon, were left in front of a mosque in Sweden.

The announcement by Charlie Hebdo magazine's decision to republish cartoons from Denmark in 2005 in France also proved that this hostility was directed against Islam. The tension, further heightened by French President Emmanuel Macron defining Islam as a "religion in crisis," also revealed how the anti-Islam narrative is constantly utilized as a propaganda tool by populist politicians. All these developments increase rumors that there is a new wave of cultural-racism, new-racism, or anti-Islamism in Europe.

Populist politics, which never fell off the agenda in the "age of uncertainty and anxiety," continues in accordance with the spirit of the times. The socio-psychological background of populist politics, which is often neglected in many commentaries, leaves in the dark the social ground of political narratives that constantly reproduce Islamophobia. This community base does not have casual concerns about the religion of Islam, and the main reason for their extreme concern is not knowing about the doctrines of the religion of Islam. That is, not knowing about the religion.

Even though they are not familiar with Islam, their efforts to fit it into narrow molds and lay down the law as if they know about the religion is the first and foremost factor that triggers their neurotic anxiety. Therefore, out of the many types of the concept of ignorance, these people are in "deep ignorance," where one does not know, does not know what it does not know, but still claims to know the best.

This is the most important point to be emphasized; because an entire building of hostility is rising on this foundation as if to prove the argument that "man is the enemy of the unknown."

A group of people in Europe carry pathological neurotic anxiety toward the religion of Islam, which they define as a danger to their existence, and therefore Muslims.

In addition, the aggression they display due to their inability to tolerate this anxiety reveals that the anxiety they experience is not normal or ordinary.

The freedom of Muslims, who are forced to be open to criticism regarding their beliefs, are ignored. While these issues are dealt with within the scope of freedom of expression, freedom of the press and criticism; the most fundamental rights of Muslims such as freedom of religion and freedom of conscience are violated. Legal limits are also ignored while Muslims and the doctrines of Islam are being attacked with violent, humiliating and mocking acts.

There are a few fundamental reasons as to why Muslims began to be associated with violence and terrorism, and there exists a tendency to hate, which evolved into Islamophobia.

The first is the existence of people who self-identify as Muslims who misinterpreted the religion and are violent, while their actions have nothing to do with Islam.

These people who are inclined to violence, while not at all representing Islamic values, are also causing the religion to be misperceived, and represent a mentality that Muslims too must fight against.

Another reason is Europe's holistically prejudiced, marginalizing and superior perspective toward Muslims; where stereotyping all Muslims and labeling them using notions such as “terrorism,” “underdevelopment,” “being prone to violence” and “being inferior to Europe” without understanding the Islamic religion.

In addition, it is clear that parts of European societies that have forgotten about their anti-Semitic pasts and that are hostile toward Islam in a wider context today are in fact experiencing neurotic anxiety.

The term Islamophobia itself, which consists of the words Islam and phobia, which is used to explain the developments, is insufficient in explaining attacks on the sacred elements of Islam. Kierkegaard states that anxiety has no object while defining fear as a real and specific threat that is factual.

In other words, people are anxious about things that do not exist, just as in the example of Europe. However, anxieties also diversify within themselves. While normal levels of anxiety are present in all humans due to the possibilities of physical and existential threats to life; neurotic anxiety is not observed in all humans. People with normal levels of anxiety, who we may perceive as how Hafez-e Shirazi described in the 13th century, saying “The Heart: A drop of blood and a thousand worries,” can constructively confront these worries, tolerate them and, moreover, become open to change.

On the other hand, neurotic anxiety is generally found in people who perceive others as threats to their existence. For these people, who do not have a reflexive perception of themselves, it does not matter whether their existence is truly threatened or not. What they find important is the experience of the high levels of anxiety that they have, and they believe that their existence is in danger.

Psychoanalyst R. D. Laing describes this pathological anxiety as a condition of a group of schizoid and schizophrenic patients who "perceive many people as a danger to their existence." In the face of threats that may come about in life, individuals with neurotic anxiety, unlike individuals with normal anxiety, are overly reactive to the inability to control and are in a stiff state of not wanting to change. Karen Horney states that people who believe that their feelings of existential security are in danger feel helpless and that they declare "enemies" the people who they think are causing that desperation. While these very subjective and non-generalizable neurotic anxiety and reactions were described by Paul Tillich by mentioning the Nazis as an example.

Rollo May associates this pathological anxiety with the emergence and rise of fascism. Therefore, this is how the rising populist far-right narrative in Europe is finding support within societies. These neurotic anxieties which had started with hostility toward Muslims have evolved into anti-Islamism or Islamophobia. The main question to be asked is where Europe is taking its unity built on the narrative of the Holocaust, with the narratives of marginalization rebuilt on Islamophobia.

*[Asli Nur Duzgun earned her bachelor's and master’s degrees from Istanbul University, and now is a Ph.D. student in international relations at Istanbul Medeniyet University.]

**Translated from Turkish by Can Atalay​​​​​​​