ABSTRACT
The developments between 2018 and 2019 shows the paradox of tolerance is taking its toll. Seeing themselves as champions of Western civilization, anti-Islamic activists have argued that intolerant measures are necessary to preserve their otherwise tolerant, democratic, and free societies from the menace of Islamization. In line with the embrace of unvarnished authoritarian figures in Central and Eastern Europe, some prominent anti-Islamic actors have begun to intermix civic nationalist arguments and a defence of liberal society with arguments from the ethno-pluralist handbook. Anti-Islamic activists resoundingly rejected Anders Behring Breivik after the attacks he committed on 22 July 2011.2 In contrast, the New Zealand terror attacks in which Australian Brenton Tarrant killed 50 members of a Muslim congregation on 15 March 2019 saw these same figures saying that the blood was on the hands of the multicultural elites, and that the murders were an inevitable outcome of their “multicultural experiment”.
