Call For Papers: Islamophobia in the Aftermath of Christchurch & the Covid-19 Era

Announced by the the Australian Journal of Islamic Studies

Call for Abstracts
Islamophobia in the Aftermath of Christchurch & the Covid-19 Era

Special Issue Editors

Dr Derya Iner

Senior Lecturer, Charles Sturt University

Prof Scott Poynting

Professor, Charles Sturt University

The Christchurch attack of 15 March 2019 triggered multiple worldwide instances of Islamophobic violence (Iner 2022). For instance, TellMAMA (an anti-Muslim hate register in the UK) reported a 692% increase in anti-Muslim hate attacks after Christchurch. Attacks toward mosques and other Islamic institutions also increased by 433% between February and March 2019 (TellMAMA, 2020).

On 27 April 2019, a few weeks after Christchurch, an anti-Semitic mass shooting took place at Poway synagogue in California, leaving one person dead and three others injured. The 19-year-old terrorist, whom the Christchurch terrorist inspired, followed the pattern by submitting his so-called ‘screed’ on 8chan, an online anonymous message board, before the attack.

On 3 August 2019, a 21-year-old American white supremacist killed Latinos via a mass shooting in El Paso, leaving 22 people dead and 26 others injured. Like the Christchurch terrorist, he published his white nationalist screed online, echoing the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy. This racist mass murder prompted seven mass white supremacist attacks in the two weeks following the shooting (TellMAMA, 2020).

On 10 August 2019, a 21-year-old white supremacist in Norway killed his Chinese-born stepsister and rushed to a nearby mosque to kill as many Muslims as possible but only found three. Being warded off by those Muslims, the attacker could not kill anyone with his shotgun, two rifles, and nail gun while wearing a bulletproof vest. Mimicking the Christchurch terrorist, he carried a GoPro camera to livestream his mass mosque shooting (Libell and Specia, 2020). The would-be killer expressed admiration for the Christchurch terrorist, just as he had praised and emulated Anders Behring’s 2011 atrocities in Norway.

On 2 June 2019, district president Walter Lübcke was murdered by a far-right terrorist in Germany. The attacker is believed to have associations with militant far-right organisations like Combat 18 and Network Hannibal, which—according to the German police—recruits former and active security service agents, soldiers, and police officers along with right-wing individuals and having a hit-list to assassinate more than 20,000 high-ranking individuals and ‘pro-immigration’ politicians (Bayrakli and Hafez, 2020).

On 9 October 2019, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, a 28-year-old German far-right terrorist attempted to mass murder Jews after entering the synagogue in Halle. Livestreaming himself but failing to breach the security systems in the synagogue, the far-right terrorist ended up killing a passing woman. Next, he rushed to a kebab shop and killed a man in the shop. (Liebowitz, 2019). The Christchurch attacks marked an evolutionary step for far-right terrorism (Hutchinson, 2019). Engaging online facilities and platforms in their execution strategy, far-right terrorists caused widespread and long-term impacts, which triggered copycat attacks during 2019.

Covid-19 pandemic further changed the face of anti-Muslim hate. Muslims have been accused of spreading Covid-19 virus in mosques, Eid, or family gatherings. Muslim-populated suburbs are portrayed as problematic places where lockdowns and restrictions are frequently breached. While misinformation, disinformation and distrust were spread online during lockdowns, anti-Muslim hate strategically heightened throughout social media platforms.

Under these specific socio-political circumstances, this special issue aims to explore the manifestation of Islamophobia in the post-Christchurch and Covid-19 era worldwide, especially in the West. This special issue will explore:

- Islamophobia in the aftermath of Christchurch attacks

- Islamophobia and Covid 19 pandemic (and lockdowns)

- Interaction between online and offline (physical) Islamophobia in post Christchurch and Covid 19 era

- Far-right populism and Islamophobia

- Islamophobia on the 20th anniversary of 9/11

Abstracts should not exceed 300-400 words (excluding the outline) and should include the following subheadings:

- Name, Contact details:

- Position and Institution:

- Objective of the paper:

- Methodology:

- Research findings:

- Original contribution:

- A Brief Outline:

- Keywords (6 maximum):

Timeframes

- Abstract submissions close: 15 July 2022

- Notification of successful abstracts: 30 July 2022

- Final manuscript submissions due: 30 December 2022

Please submit your abstracts via email to Derya Iner (diner@csu.edu.au) and CC: to Scott Poynting (s.poynting@gmail.com). Please include the special issue name in the subject line.