The Far Right, banal nationalism, and the reproduction of Islamophobia through the consumer activist campaign of Boycott Halal

Jafari, Aliakbar and Saleh, Alam (2024) The Far Right, banal nationalism, and the reproduction of Islamophobia through the consumer activist campaign of Boycott Halal. The Sociological Review. pp. 1-33. ISSN 0038-0261 (In Press) (https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261241291676)

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Abstract

In this case study, we examine a UK-based anti-halal consumer activist campaign called Boycott Halal Campaign (BHC). Using critical discourse analysis applied to online data, we show how, by framing halal-certified products as an existential threat to the UK, BHC drew from and contributed to the institutionalised ideology of Islamophobia. Given the potential of markets and consumptionscapes in increasing the visibility of ethnoreligious markers, we show how the far right has used these mundane arenas as fertile grounds on which to reproduce its discourse through banal nationalism and exclusionary civilizationism. We argue that beyond public protests, the far right has used consumer activism as a powerful tool for recruiting members and mobilising different groups against Islam and Muslims. We contribute to the sociological accounts of inter-group identity dynamics by showing how activists can leverage the securitisation discourse to mobilise different groups for their political ends. We argue that such mobilisation (aimed at reproducing a collective identity) becomes possible when a social group perceives its collective identity to be under threat by another social group. The study calls for more research on how and why different forms of exclusionary ideologies can arise and evolve over time and what tools and mechanisms they can use to transmit their agendas and recruit members.

ORCID iDs

Jafari, Aliakbar ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4321-2911 and Saleh, Alam;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)