Why Can't Hijabs Be Hygge Too? The Development of Islamophobia in Denmark Through Politics and Media
Creators: name: Williams, Isabel
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2022

description: In this thesis, I investigated the oxymoronic nature of Denmark's international reputation as a social liberal haven, and its national self-perception of itself as a bastion of tolerance and egalitarianism, in contrast to the Islamophobia that characterizes its immigration policy and media presentation of immigrants and Muslims. I sought to answer the research questions: How do the Danish people and politicians reconcile their cultural values of equality and tolerance with the widespread discrimination against and negative stereotyping of Muslims in Danish society? What cultural and historical conditions have created a society that allowed for the development of this paradox? How has Danish national identity become influenced by its opposition to Islam into something more neo-nationalist? To answer these questions, I investigated both the political and media environments in Denmark, in context with Danish history and cultural characteristics, through a neo-nationalist framework. I chose to study politics for the tangible policy impact, and media for the public-facing, societal impact. I first addressed the continuity of policies that restricted immigration and discriminated against Muslims despite differing political party majorities, and the development of specifically anti-immigrant parties and objectives, especially in response to the 2015 European Migrant Crisis. I also isolated the characteristics of Denmark that made it significantly more anti-immigrant than its Scandinavian neighbors. Next, I analyzed three significant media events which proliferated negative stereotypes of Muslims in Danish society, and characterized Islam as antithetical to the Danish national identity: a media campaign which accused Muslim immigrants of taking advantage of the Danish welfare state, the exclusion of young Muslims from participation in Danish politics, and the campaign by Denmark's largest newspaper to ridicule and provoke Muslims through cartoon representations of the Prophet Muhammad. I found that the corroboration of anti-immigrant policy by the media's misrepresentation of Islam has allowed for broad societal racism against Muslims to be disguised under a neo-nationalist narrative of natural cultural incompatibility, and racialized the category of "non-Western immigrants." This has created a welfare chauvinist system, in which welfare state benefits are only extended to those who are considered to belong in the nation, which can never be Muslims due to their supposed incompatibility with Danish cultural values. The exclusion of Muslims from participation in Danish society and benefitting from the otherwise generous Danish welfare state, as well as the lack of representation of true and accurate Muslim voices in both government and media, exacerbates this issue. I argue that widespread facilitation of meaningful interactions between Muslims and ethnic Danes would eventually erode the negative dialogue that has been developed.