Comparing Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Asylophobia: The British Case

Abstract This article examines how far discourses on the ‘ O ther’ and immigration in contemporary Britain resemble antisemitic discourses in Britain during and between the two W orld W ars. The article contends that there was a particular B ritish species of antisemitism in evidence during the wartime and interwar periods which was made up of a number of key elements, defined here as ‘conspiratorial’, ‘cultural’, ‘religious’, and ‘economic’ forms of anti‐ J ewish animosity. The article then considers whether similar elements can be discerned in responses to ‘ O ther’ maligned groups in the contemporary period, particularly in relation to anti‐ M uslim sentiment or I slamophobic discourses. The article then investigates whether we can identify symmetry in relation to another group which has experienced high levels of discrimination in twenty‐first‐century B ritain, asylum seekers. Here, the article considers whether one needs to situate contemporary ‘asylophobia’ in a wider explanatory framework which both takes account of the possible ‘re‐cycling’ of earlier stigmatising representations of J ews, and more contemporary influences and developments relating to neo‐liberal globalisation.