Beyond Imported Antisemitism: The Co-Occurrence of Antisemitic Attitudes Among Muslims and the Far Right in Austria

Antisemitism can historically be understood as a core ideological component of the extreme right. Particularly in post-National Socialist societies such as Germany or Austria, antisemitic expressions have been subject to a public communication taboo since 1945 and are therefore often articulated in coded forms. More recently, however, extreme right actors have increasingly externalised contemporary antisemitism by claiming that it is primarily caused by (immigrant) Muslims. In public debates, this position is frequently challenged by the argument that antisemitism is not an “imported” phenomenon and that the greatest threat to Jews continues to emanate from the extreme right. Current controversies are thus characterised by a framing in which the antisemite is always constructed as “the Other”. In this paper, I draw on recent representative survey data from Austria to examine this “blame game” surrounding antisemitism from the perspective of empirical attitude research. I argue that this discursive dynamic obscures key dimensions of the antisemitism problem in Austria. On the one hand, when differentiated by religious denomination, Muslims display significantly higher levels of agreement with antisemitic statements than members of other religious groups; this relationship is partially mediated by religious fundamentalist attitudes. On the other hand, when differentiated by voting behaviour in the most recent national parliamentary election, voters of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) likewise exhibit significantly higher levels of antisemitic attitudes, a relationship partially mediated by authoritarianism and dissatisfaction with democracy. Overall, the findings suggest that antisemitism should be understood as a broader societal phenomenon closely associated with authoritarian dispositions and religious fundamentalism.