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    Published: 2018-06-30
    Vol. 22 No. 1 (2018)

    The radicalisation of the anti-muslim and antimigrant discourse in the social media on the example of local incidents in ełk in 2016 and 2017

    Michał Łyszczarz , Stefan M. Marcinkiewicz

    Abstract

    The article presents the incident from Ełk on 1st January 2017. The town with 60,000 inhabitants and six people from Muslim countries experienced anti-Muslim riots after the murder of a young Pole by the kebab bar staff member and an Arab. The authors put forward the thesis that the crucial factor that led to the incident was the prior radicalization of social attitudes. Criminal activities of ISIS, the migration crisis and the terrorist attacks in Europe have aroused fears of immigrants and Muslims in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The anti-Muslim rhetoric was instrumentally used in the election campaign in 2015 (i.a. The KORWiN Party fomented fears of Islam by launching a campaign under the slogan: „Stop Islamization of Poland”). During the campaign in Ełk took place a demonstration against immigrants. Then there was a demonstration against the location of a refugee center in the nearby town Olecko. In March 2016, a group of young people attacked employees of the kebab bar in Ełk. It was the racist attack. The activity in social media contributed to the radicalization of social attitudes. The example of the content provided by a certain politician from Ełk shows the process of spreading xenophobic and Islamophobic content. The consequence of this was the interpretation of the Pole’s murder as a terrorist act and Jihad.

    Keywords:

    riots in Ełk, Islamophobia, radicalization of social attitudes, pathologization of social awareness

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    Łyszczarz, M., & Marcinkiewicz, S. M. (2018). The radicalisation of the anti-muslim and antimigrant discourse in the social media on the example of local incidents in ełk in 2016 and 2017. Academic Journal of Sociology, 22(1). Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uksw.edu.pl/index.php/ucs/article/view/3273

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