How the anti-Muslim right and Islamists feed off each other | The Economist

One thing that's really striking. to me is that. Islamists and the far right. need each other. They make each other worse. They feed off each other. There’s this really. unhealthy symbiosis. that pushes both to the extremes. and if the other didn't exist. it would probably be quite hard. to gather a crowd. So both are... in my opinion, both are a threat. The far right. ultimately is the bigger threat. because they have more support. There is, as we. started the show with, there is so much concern.

in Europe about Islam, most people don't know the difference. between Islam and Islamism, that the chance of the far right. actually getting power to do anything. is just far greater than the entryism. that we've been talking about. Tom. This is a really important point. As one person put it to me, these evil twins of, in the German case, the AfD and Islamists. And one thing. that some of these groups, particularly the ones that. put a lot of propaganda online, will try to do is to tell Muslims, often German.

in some respects. quite well-integrated Muslims, “This is not a country. that has space for you. Your identity cannot flourish here. You need to be somewhere else”. And when those same people. who may be tempted by that message. see Saxony-Anhalt... 44% of Germans in Saxony-Anhalt. voting for a party. that is explicitly Islamophobic. in its manifesto. When they see that party. now having a wide. opinion-poll gap. across the entire country. obviously that kind of message. is going to become. that much more potent.

I spoke to. plenty of people in Saxony-Anhalt, not Islamists. but some of the Muslims, who said that they weren't sure. that they would want to. live in a state. that was prepared. to elect a government of that sort. So that kind of dynamic. the far right on one side. and Islamism on the other. is potentially very, very dangerous. I completely agree. If the answer to. to this problem long term. is integration, this is exactly what stops. integration and assimilation happening. So it’s a really bad thing.