07.11.2022

New Format DPI Focus: First Issues on Anastasia Movement and Antisemitism

New format DPI Focus shows: conspiracy narratives and an antisemitic worldview often accompany extremist movements.extremistischen Bewegungen.

The Austrian Fund for the Documentation of Religiously Motivated Political Extremism (Documentation Center Political Islam) presents a new compact information series. The first two issues of the info format DPI Focus deal with the Anastasia movement as well as with examples of anti-Semitism in religiously motivated extremisms. Since its founding, the Fund has repeatedly encountered anti-Semitic content in its documentation work, as previously published papers, especially this year’s annual report, have also revealed.

“The ongoing crises since 2020 have strengthened radical tendencies as well as conspiracy myths within our society. A strikingly common denominator in religiously motivated political extremism is anti-Semitism; this can affect Political Islam as well as other ideologies. Antisemitic narratives are frequently found in Islamist writings, for example, by Millî Görüş founder Necmettin Erbakan or Muslim Brotherhood ideologues Sayyid Qutb and Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Among the more novel phenomena is the Anastasia movement, with characteristics of a new religious grouping based on the literature of Vladimir Megre. The movement, which comes from Russia, is an esoteric current with anti-Semitic and folkish teachings, which makes it more likely to belong to the extreme right-wing spectrum,” says Lisa Fellhofer, Director of the Documentation Center.

Antisemitism often a common denominator

To show the breadth of the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in extremist religio-political movements, the Documentation Center juxtaposed Megre’s ten-part Anastasia book series with the writings of the recently deceased Islamist scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is considered a significant source of inspiration for the Muslim Brotherhood, in the second DPI Focus issue. The Egyptian al-Qaradawi refers primarily to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his remarks, equating Jewish people with the state of Israel and imputing unchangeable, negative characteristics to them. Both ideologues spread anti-Semitic and generalizing stereotypes in different ways. Among other things, they blame Jews for their own persecution and thus for the Shoah and the Holocaust.

Antisemitismus oftmals gemeinsamer Nenner

Um die Bandbreite des Phänomens des Antisemitismus in extremistischen religiös-politischen Bewegungen aufzuzeigen, hat die Dokumentationsstelle in der zweiten DPI Focus-Ausgabe Megres zehnteilige Anastasia-Buchreihe den Schriften des kürzlich verstorbenen islamistischen Gelehrten Yusuf al-Qaradawi, der als bedeutende Inspirationsquelle für die Muslimbruderschaft gilt, gegenübergestellt. Der Ägypter al-Qaradawi bezieht sich in seinen Ausführungen vor allem auf den israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikt, wobei er jüdische Menschen mit dem Staat Israel gleichsetzt und ihnen unveränderliche, negative Eigenschaft unterstellt. Beide Ideologen verbreiten auf eine unterschiedliche Art und Weise antisemitische sowie pauschalisierende Stereotypen. Dabei schreiben sie Jüdinnen und Juden unter anderem die Schuld für ihre eigene Verfolgung und damit an der Shoah beziehungsweise dem Holocaust zu.

The DPI Focus format provides regular information on current and relevant events, actors and structures of the religious extremist spectrum. DPI Focus expands the Fund’s existing range of publications to include a descriptive format that provides low-threshold information. The first issues are available at the following links:

DPI Focus: The Anastasia Movement (German Edition)

DPI Focus: Anti-Semitism in Islamist and Far-Right Thought. An exemplary comparison (German Edition)

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