Connections in Media - Anti-Muslim Effects

Abstract

An analysis of the central media debates regarding the topic of Islam since »9/11« shows that anti-Muslim racism in the German context draws on five discourses interlinked with the discourse on Islam. The German discourse on Islam owes its virulence to its respective entanglements with the discourses on internal security, civil liberties, the welfare state, integration and so-called »problem districts«. These discursive entanglements generate and reinforce representations like the dangerous, the uncivilized or the useless »other«, the »other« unwilling to integrate and »parallel societies«. The following corresponding functions can be identified: 1. The criminalization of muslims as a means of justifying control and disguising racism, 2. The strengthening of a positive »German« and »Western« self-image, 3. The legitimation of the dismantling of the welfare state by ethnicizing and culturalizing poverty, 4. The maintenance of cultural dominance of white Germans over minoritized populations and 5. The localization of »Muslim deficits« and problems in the construct of a hazardous limited space unaffected by larger societal structures. The study's research question is: Which problems are reported by the parties and to what extent does intercultural competence prove itself to be an essential component of cooperation in SPFH?