Farid Hafez

Farid Hafez (born on 23 December 1981) is an Austrian political scientist and Visiting Professor of International Studies at Williams College and Senior Researcher at Georgetown University's The Bridge Initiative. Before his role at the Georgetown University, he was at the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Salzburg.

Early life

Hafez was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria on 23 December 1981. After moving to Austria's capital Vienna and taking his first degree in political science, he finished his studies and earned his PhD at University of Vienna in 2009.

Academic career

Shortly before submitting his dissertation, in which he analyzed parliamentary debates on the ban of mosques and minarets in two Austrian counties, he published his first book ‘Islamophobia in Austria’ together with Middle East scholar John Bunzl.

Since then, Hafez published widely on Islamophobia. In 2010, he founded the Islamophobia Studies Yearbook In 2015, he created the European Islamophobia Report, which he now edits along with political scientist Enes Bayrakli for the Leopold Weiss Institute, LWI, based in Vienna, Austria. Farid Hafez has also published on Islam and the Far-Right for Brookings Institution.

He is a Faculty Affiliate of the Rutgers University's Center for Security, Rights and Race and a member of the Affiliated Faculty of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) at University of California, Berkeley. He is also Affiliated Faculty and Scholars-member of the Center for Right-Wing Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and the editor of numerous works on Islamophobia.

From 2008 to 2010, Hafez did research at the Department of Law of Religion and Culture at the University of Vienna, before he started teaching at the Muslim Teachers Training College in Vienna (2009 to 2014). In 2014, he was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University.

During the academic year 2016/17, he was Fulbright- Botstiber Visiting Professor of Austrian-American Studies at UC Berkeley. Hafez had taught at the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Vienna as well as at the University of Klagenfurt.

His research at the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Salzburg focused on Muslim youth movements in Europe.

He also teaches at a number of academic non-universitarian institutions such as the Global Citizenship Alliance 8 In 2015, he was part of the faculty of The Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship. Hafez also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Austrian-American History.

Controversies

On November 9, 2020, there was a raid called Operation Luxor against suspects of alleged terrorism. Der Standard editor Hans Rauscher called the operation a "gigantic flop" and Die Presse editor Anna Thalhammer saw the investigation "crumbling" almost two years later following a decision by the Appellate Court that called the raid "unlawful." Hafez was among those who were suspected and his home was raided. He has strongly denied being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood as the investigation claimed.

Shortly after what Austrian authorities called Operation Luxor, Hafez complained about the police search and compared it to the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. This comparison was criticized by the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Integration, both from the New ÖVP. The conservative Austrian minister of the interior, Karl Nehammer, called the comparison with Kristallnacht and the police search against activists of political Islam "tasteless", "scandalous" and "an expression of an anti-democratic position", even after the court ruled that the raid was illegal. In 2018, Nehammer had proposed to ban fasting for pupils in the holy month of Ramadan. In an "International Statement Opposing Use of Counter-Terrorism Powers to Target Islamophobia Expert," which was signed by more than 350 scholars, primarily from the United States of America, including Charles Taylor, Talal Asad and Peter Rose. The letter argued that this raid was "part of the international rise of authoritarian governmental suppression of Muslim civil society and critical scholarship in Western democracies" They called upon the State Prosecutor "to close the case, and cease its intimidation of Dr Farid Hafez and others who have been wrongly attacked."

The Regional Court (that had allowed the initial unlawful raid) issued a recent shocking and inaccurate decision that upheld the investigation against Prof. Hafez, citing his academic work. According to the Regional Court (Landesgericht Graz), Hafez's “activities in the preparation of the so-called Islamophobia Report and his activity with the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University is intended to disseminate the fighting term “Islamophobia” with the goal of preventing any critical engagement with Islam as a religion ..in order to establish an Islamic state .." According to Georgetown University, "this statement and the court’s decision are proof that the case against Prof. Farid Hafez is a dangerous sign of an attempt to silence the free speech and academic freedom of a prominent scholar." Media scholar Prof. Fritz Hausjell called this an "encroachment on academic freedom and freedom of speech."

The European Parliament passed a motion on April 29, 2021, with a two thirds majority in which it "deplores that Austrian political scientist Farid Hafez repeatedly received funding from the EU budget, despite his close association with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Turkish government, who attempt to silence independent journalists and media freedom under the disguise of Islamophobia". It called on the EU Commission "to amend eligibility criteria for rights, equality and citizenship programmes under the Union budget to prevent individuals and organisations with such disturbing views from receiving Union funding". Farid Hafez continued to receive funding from the European Union for a project dedicated to the documentation of anti-Muslim hate crimes.

Awards

In 2020, Farid Hafez was awarded the "Islam on the Edges"-price by Shenandoah University's Center for Islam in the Contemporary World (CICW).

In 2009, Farid Hafez was awarded was awarded the Bruno Kreisky award (Anerkennungspreis) of the Karl-Renner-Institute for the political book of the year 2009 for his book ‘Islamophobia in Austria’.

The Austrian Culture Magazine named Farid Hafez as one of 100 „Austrians with a special future“.

Public appearances

Hafez publishes regularly in Austrian and international news media like Haaretz, Daily Sabah, Der Standard and Die Presse. He is a frequent interview partner for international media, among them BBC
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