‘Anthropologists Are Talking’ About Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism in the New Europe

Abstract

The terms anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are common in the media, but what do they actually refer to? Has traditional anti-Semitism run its historical course while Islamophobia threatens to become the defining condition of the new unified Europe? Both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are phenomena of exclusion of minorities, but does that make them comparable? And if yes, in what ways can such an attempt at comparison escape the pitfall of analogizing the historical situation of the Jew and the contemporary situation of Muslims? These are some of the questions that are addressed in the following conversation between Prof. Matti Bunzl and Dr Bangstad, based on transcripts from an event at The House of Literature in Oslo, Norway, on 18 September 2009.