Islamophobia and Translations of Securitization in the UK, France, and Italy

Abstract This book contributes to research on Islamophobia and critical security studies by exploring the historical trajectory and the intra-party dynamics that led three Western European centre-left parties (British Labour Party, French Socialist Party, and Italian Democratic Party) to securitize Islam. Western governments have increasingly framed Islam as a threat to national security in recent decades. Yet, the ideas and languages through which securitization manifests across and inside right-wing and left-wing parties is less examined by current literature. This book shows that political parties translate security (particularly the securitization of Islam) in the name of various ideological references. This is necessary to understand why the same securitized threat (Muslims) is interpreted differently by political parties on the Right and the Left. The author engages with one main question: How do Islamophobia and specifically its securitarian dimension travel across and inside political parties? The author argues that the securitization of Islam travels across and inside parties through a process called translation, which occurs through the appropriation of tropes traditionally belonging to the other political pole. Translation is active, because Islamophobic tropes are translated into a language coherent with partisan ideologies. Translation is also collective. If the securitization audiences are not persuaded by translation, the process might be rejected, and such rejection can lead to de-securitization. Translation is also influenced and made possible by contextual elements: the party history, the interaction between the Right and the Left, and significant external events that increased the perception of insecurity raised by Muslims.