9/11 at 25: How the ‘War on Terror’ helped mainstream Europe’s far right

What the report says

Al Jazeera publishes an opinion essay by Farid Hafez arguing that the post-9/11 “Global War on Terror” helped move Europe’s far right from the political margins into mainstream debate and, in some cases, government power. The piece says anti-Muslim ideas that were already circulating in Europe gained new legitimacy after the 2001 attacks, especially as Western governments, media coverage and military campaigns framed Islam through a security lens.

According to the article, far-right parties and activists in countries including France, Austria, the Netherlands and others used this climate to recast Muslims as a permanent internal threat. Hafez writes that the process was reinforced by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, counterterrorism measures such as deradicalisation programmes and surveillance, and close cooperation between European and American anti-Muslim networks. He also points to transatlantic “counter-jihad” campaigning, mosque opposition and a wider shift in which far-right arguments were increasingly adopted by mainstream parties.

The essay says this shift had concrete political effects across Europe, including coalitions, policy influence and tougher restrictions on Muslim dress, worship and civil society activity. It argues that the legacy of the post-9/11 era continues to shape how Muslims are discussed and policed, and that far-right movements benefited by turning Islamophobia into an electorally useful position. As a general matter, the article places these trends in the broader context of Europe’s unresolved history of racism and fascism.