Nationalists in Germany are making Islamophobia a scapegoat for troubles, with protests in Dresden and support spreading throughout the country. Political, business and cultural leaders are determined to block parties with xenophobic rhetoric, explains Frank Griffel, professor of religious studies at Yale University. Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1925, exposing his ideology and anti-Semitism; in 1933, he was the German chancellor. “German culture prides itself on having stepped out of the shadow of Nazi Germany,” writes Griffel. “Germans today, both in the former West and the East, despise all too blatant manifestations of nationalism and patriotism and, 70 years after the Nazis’ fall, remain wary that a new kind of Nazism might creep into its political culture.” He analyzes the movement known by its acronym PEGIDA, which means “Patriotic Europeans who protest Islamization of the West” and points to the dilemmas for leaders who must address the resentment of immigrants masked as security concerns along with the changing culture and slowing conomic growth. Elsewhere in Europe, right-wing parties with xenophobic views have made gains in recent elections. – YaleGlobal
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/germany%E2%80%99s-nationalist-movement-rides-wave-islamophobia
