Denials of Racism and the English Defence League

Abstract

This chapter engages directly with the question of whether Islamophobia is a form of racism by considering the ideology of the English Defence League (EDL), a vehemently anti-Islamist group which presents itself as anti-racist and multicultural. The chapter demonstrates how the group attempted to side-step accusations of racism by using strategies of racist discourse construction, including denials, diminutives, projection, and positive-self and negative-other representations in order to legitimise Islamophobia as a natural and rational reaction to the anti-social behaviour of Muslims. The chapter argues that although the EDL does not belong to the traditional far-right, its existence is part of a rising counter-jihad movement that employs subtle cultural racialisation in order to maintain traditional ethno-cultural privilege and exclude Muslims from national and local communities.