The Colonial Legacy of Europe's Islam Policies. The Cases of Austria and Germany

ACGIS Guest Lecture with Dr. Farid Hafez

Monday, March 23, 2026 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM EDT
Horizon Hall, 3225

 This talk discusses how colonial governance of Muslim populations under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Kaiserreich shaped Islam policies from the late 19th century through the Nazi eraand into postwar Austria and Germany. By examining the institutionalization of Muslim representative bodies and Islamic education, it discusses the concept of the “coloniality of Islampolitik” to reveal the racialized continuities underlying state regulation of Islam in contemporary Austria and Germany.

 

Farid Hafez is Assistant Teaching Professor of International Relations at William and Mary. Since 2017, he has been a non-resident Senior Researcher at Georgetown University's The Bridge Initiative. From 2021-24, he was the Class of 1955 Distinguished Visiting Professor of International Studies at Williams College. He is a recipient of the Bruno Kreisky Prize for political book of the year, for his anthology Islamophobia in Austria(co-ed. with John Bunzl, 2009). Farid Hafez has been the founding co-editor of the European Islamophobia Report since 2015.