ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the main perspectives on far-right ideology, networks, and mobilization as a backdrop to my subsequent chapters and findings. It is structured into three main sections. As mobilization against Islam and Muslims is understood as a far-right phenomenon, and the far right is understood in terms of ideology, the first two sections are devoted to the issues of ideology and conceptualization. The first section discusses and clarifies the different concepts used to describe the far right by creating a taxonomy of ideologies, whereas the second section provides an overview and discussion of Islamophobia and anti-Islam as the two concepts which specifically refer to mobilization against Islam and Muslims. It argues that anti-Islam is a more suitable label than Islamophobia, offering a definition of anti-Islam as the framing of Islam as a homogenous, totalitarian ideology which threatens Western civilization. Whereas some describe the anti-Islamic worldview as a continuation of the ethno-pluralist master frame described by Rydgren, others point to the novelty of their inclusion of liberal and progressive positions. This inclusion is, however, commonly depicted as a strategic façade. The third and final section provides a brief overview of the work looking at the anti-Islamic far right in terms of networks and mobilization. Several studies describe an anti-Islamic far right outside party politics which is transnational in scope and prominent online, and their online networks seem to be ideologically structured. Whether it is a movement with a common ideological outlook is nonetheless contested by some.
