Hara Kouki

Muslim immigrants and the Greek nation: The emergence of nationalist intolerance

Faced with claims for recognising religious diversity, liberal European democracies have shifted in the last 10 years towards a more restrictive view of integration. This paper seeks to make a contribution to this line of research on how European countries deal with migration-related ethnic and religious diversity today by investigating the case of a southern country, notably Greece. Greece is an interesting case to study: it has by now 20 years of experience as a host country, but still its migrant integration policies are under-developed. In addition Greece it is currently experiencing an acute economic crisis while irregular migration towards the country is on the rise. These developments have contributed to bringing migration on to centre stage in political discourse with a concomitant rise of racist and xenophobic discourses against migrants. This paper takes, as a case study, the public Muslim prayer that took place in several squares of Athens on 18 November 2010 as a peaceful protest against the fact that Athens still does not have a formal mosque. We use this event as an opportunity for interviewing social and political actors directly or indirectly involved in it on their views regarding migration, religious diversity and their accommodation in the Greek public space. We analyse their discourse on whether and under what conditions religious diversity, Islam in particular, should be tolerated or accepted in Greek society. We propose here the notion of ‘nationalist intolerance’ to make sense of Greek discourses and propose a dynamic understanding of tolerance and intolerance as concepts that do not emanate from abstract norms but are rather negotiated in specific contexts.

Naturalizing Racism in the Center of Athens in May 2011: Lessons from Greece

In Greece, the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn entered parliament in 2012 after receiving 7% of the national vote; at the same time, anti-migrant rhetoric and racist violence was transformed into an everyday phenomenon, tolerated by the authorities, and mainstreamed in official political and media discourse. Departing from a series of racist attacks in the center of Athens (May 2011), this article examines how far-right ideology became normalized in terms of public discourse. Speaking on behalf of the “average citizen” and against the political establishment, the actors interviewed feel free to castigate immigration and naturalize racism.

Introduction to the Special Issue: New Forms of Intolerance in European Political Life

This introduction summarizes the contributions to the Special Issue that focus on the spread of intolerant and racist discourses in Denmark, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Hungary. Through a comparative approach, the issue argues that what has been decisive in this process is the role played by mainstream political parties that perceive intolerance against the “other” as the natural outcome of the failure of previous tolerant policies on immigrants and minorities. Even if brought forward with different argumentation in each case, intolerance is introduced in all five countries as a principled position under the pretext of protecting European citizens’ rights.

Introduction : is Greece a modern European country?

History is not constructed of facts; it is constructed by the way we perceive, interpret, and narrate those facts. Since early 2010, Greece has been apparently undergoing ‘historic moments’. Historic moments are events that define and shape a period of history and constitute ‘landmark’ dates or periods for each generation. Indeed, since the spring of 2010 almost every month has been marked by meetings, decisions, and declarations on behalf of Greek politicians, European heads of state and government, bankers, and high-level officials from international or European organizations that are considered ‘historic moments’ and have been leading Greece, the Eurozone, and the European Union (EU) into uncharted waters. Rescue mechanisms, bailouts, debt haircuts, austerity measures, strikes, bankruptcies, and the danger of the ‘Grexit’ have become points of reference forming these historic moments.

Catching up and Objecting to Europe: Modernity and Discursive Topoi in Greece's Higher Education Reforms

Eisenstadt’s theory of multiple modernities recognizes the historical precedence of Western patterns of modernity as fundamental points of reference for other modernities, but argues that each country defines its individual path to modernity through its own internal conflicts. Since the end of the Cold War, EU integration and access to EU membership have steadily become the dominant, if not the exclusive, institutional frameworks representing the paradigm of Western modernity. Against this background, we consider the way in which Greece’s pathway to modernity has oscillated between a dominant European definition and an individual one particular to its own internal conflicts. Specifically, we examine the position of state actors, civil society representatives, and lay people on higher education in the context of the Bologna process, the EU institutional framework aimed at educational integration, itself a means of defining identities, pursuing modernity, and protecting tradition.

Toward an Anthropology of the European Union: Insights from Greece

How is Europe perceived by its citizens? What does Europe mean for European Union (EU) citizens? In what ways does ‘Europe’ materialize in our everyday life? How does it manifest itself and what do we feel about what ‘Europe’ represents? In what ways do European citizens experience their individual, or their collective belonging to the EU in the quotidien, in the simple every day?