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Rabat – “This is a night of pride for Brothers of Italy, but it is a starting point, not a finish line,” the rightwing Italian politician Giorgia Meloni told a crowd of cheering supporters on Sunday as she celebrated her party’s triumph in the country’s general elections. “We will not betray your trust,” she insisted.
For Karima Moual, an Italian-Moroccan journalist who has been living in Italy for three decades, the sight of a crowd cheering Brothers of Italy’s long-projected triumph was the chilling, almost physical confirmation of an alarming reality that had been in the making throughout the campaign.
Judging from its rhetoric and policy priorities, Meloni’s party is part of the rapidly dominant breed of nativist and xenophobic politics winning elections and cultural debates across Europe. As a journalist who has been chronicling Italy’s alarming shift to the right, Moual has been on the receiving end of right-wing xenophobia and Islamophobia.
The Moroccan journalist moved to Italy when she was just nine years old and has lived in the country for more than 31 years. She currently writes columns for Italian outlets La Stampa and La Repubblica, tackling issues such as Islamophobia, racism, and immigration.
Racism Sparked by Politics
In the buildup to Italy’s general elections on September 25, Moual featured among the country’s most outspoken critics of the normalization of anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric in the European country. As well as appearing on various television programs, she used her own professional platform in Italian news outlets to warn against the xenophobic turn of Italian and European politics.
In an interview with Morocco World News (MWN), Karima Moual recalled some of the hate messages she was sent for daring to take issue with Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party’s stance on migration and Islam. “A man messaged me on Facebook telling me my time was limited and that I should go back to my country,” she told MWN, adding that the man’s message was accompanied by an image of a dead pig with its head covered in blood.
Other right-wing sympathizers have angrily claimed that as a Moroccan national Karima Moual has no right to comment on Italian politics. Visibly exasperated by such nativist bigotry, Moual explained: “They attack me because I am Moroccan not because of my political views.”
Some other nationalistic keyboard warriors have chosen to attack the journalist’s Moroccan heritage with bigoted messages that read, among others: “If you were in your country you would not have the right to talk about these topics and you would be wearing a niqab.”
Islamophobia Spreading Throughout Europe
Such vitriolic, proudly Islamophobic comments come on the heels of a rampant banalization of anti-Islam and anti-immigrant hatred across Europe, according to converging news reports and studies.
“Europe must defend its borders against Muslim invasion,” the far-right Spanish VOX party leader Santiago Abascal said earlier this year, explaining that only non-Muslim Ukranian refugees should be welcomed in EU countries as refugees.
This past April Europe witnessed yet another extremely anti-Islamic hateful incident when the far-right Danish party member, Rasmus Paludan, burnt a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in Sweden.
Going back further in pre-Brexit time, we saw the Brexiteers gather momentum when they were fed the anti-immigration promise to bribe votes for those who felt Britain should favor its citizens for employment. A plan which has since backfired severely considering the understaffing crisis Britain now faces especially in the emergency services.
A keen observer of this distressingly normalized trend of anti-Islam politics, Moual drew associations between emerging political and immigration problems when she noticed a rampage of racist and anti-Islamic behavior in Italy.
Read Also: US Study: Black, MENA Muslims Are More Likely To Report Police Harassment
She emphasized in our interview that these rampant hate-based politics was fuelled by politicians’ anti-immigration plans, “especially from right-wing conservative politicians who seem to be afraid that the immigrants would alter their identity or religion.”
She spoke of the continued legacy of the traumatic 9/11 event, arguing that the ensuing war on terror has made it easier for racist politicians and commentators to put all Muslims in the same basket of terrorism and extremism.
“There was also a clear shift that was felt by Muslims worldwide; we were not allowed to practice our religion comfortably as people generalized all Muslims to the few extremists,” she said of the 9/11 effect.
But, she added, “people are diverse; they cannot be generalized.”
Reflecting on her life prior to these events, Moual recalled: “I did not experience violence or racism even during the 90s, a time which saw little to no immigrants or Muslims [in Italy]. I did not experience prejudice or stereotypes as a child of Moroccan descent in Italy.”
As a “culturally integrated” person who feels at home in Italy, Karima explained, it felt depressing and almost traumatizing to be told to “go back to your country.” She stressed: “I feel hurt as I have achieved what I dreamed of but I did not expect to be subjected to racism.”
But such events have not fazed Karima Moual. Instead, she has grown to recognize the need for advocacy for immigrants not only in Italy but worldwide.
Support from the Left
Politicians from left-wing parties have shown support in tweets denouncing the racist comments and behavior the Moroccan-born journalist has to face in recent weeks, yet there have been no such comments of support from right-wing parties.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recently posted on Facebook to ring alarms about the regrettable lack of political reaction following the insults that the journalist has received.
“Social media has become a hate spew against journalists. Freedom of the press must go into the election campaign,” said the post. Meanwhile, a discernibly unbowed Karima maintained throughout our interview her determination to continue being an outspoken critic of the dehumanization of migrants.
