REDFAR · Religious and Ethnic Diversity in the Far Right

The core question of the project Religious and Ethnic Diversity in the Far Right (REDFAR) is: what role play ethnic and religious minorities (ERMs) in the far right? Contemporary far-right nationalist movements across western Europe style themselves as defenders of a white Christian Europe, agitating against ERMs and rejecting ethnic and religious diversity. Yet, in recent years an increasing number of male and female ERM public intellectuals and activists have gained visibility in these movements. Looking at Germany, France, the UK and Norway, REDFAR proposes an interdisciplinary, multi-method and multi-sited comparative approach to understand the presence of ERM actors in a movement that strives for cultural homogeneity. The overarching assumption is that through its contradictory claiming of both, a secular and a Christian Europe the far right provides space for ERMs who, in turn, legitimise the far right’s politics of racial and religious exclusion. REDFAR’s multidisciplinary theoretical approach at the crossroads of political anthropology, the history of political and religious ideas and the study of far-right ideology is complemented by a multilevel methodological approach: (1) The comparative analysis of different national contexts with (2) the discourse analysis of the online and offline publications of leading non-white and non-Christian far right intellectuals and (3) the ethnographic study of local far right activism. REDFAR will provide a timely contribution to the debates on the political implications of increasing religious and ethnic diversity of western European societies and the transformations of far-right nationalist movements it entails. It will shed new light on the interdependence of religion, race and gender in far-right ideology. Its results will provide insights for practitioners confronting far right populism, extremism and radicalism and working for more inclusive European societies.