Islamophobic Right-Wing Populism? Empirical Insights about Citizens’ Susceptibility to Islamophobia and Its Impact on Right-Wing Populists’ Electoral Success: Eastern Europe in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Understanding the electoral success of right-wing populist
parties has sparked the interest of many scholars. One factor receiving less
attention in these debates is the role of religious affiliation as a cultural marker
of allegedly dangerous out-groups. Right-wing populists often portray
themselves as defenders of a Christian Occident that is allegedly under
threat by an invasion of Muslims. We argue, in accordance with the culturalbacklash
thesis, that the mobilization of right-wing populists would not have
been possible without the widespread perception of Islam and Muslims as a
threat. To test this assumption, we analyzed data from the European Social
Survey (2014). Our results show that support for a ban against Muslims
increases the likelihood of voting for right-wing populist parties, and the
percentage of Muslims in the total population has no moderating effect.
The individual linkage between anti-Muslim prejudices and the support of
right-wing populist parties is a pan-European phenomenon. Interestingly,
right-wing populists profit from anti-Muslim prejudices in places where
few Muslims live. Thus, the absence of Muslims seems to favor a social
climate in which anti-Muslim sentiments prevail. “Islamophobia without
Muslims” offers right-wing populists a political window of opportunity to
join government coalitions or even to win elections.