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With the Alternative für Deutschland's (AfD) successes in the 2017 Bundestag elections as well as in state elections in 2018 and 2019, the rise of right-wing xenophobic and Islamophobic parties over the past decade continues to increase in Germany and Europe.1 While the AfD and Pegida, the populist group that shares many of the same anti-immigration positions, claim that they are merely opposed to unrestricted immigration that threatens an autochthonic German culture, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that what they envision and advocate for is more than just restricted immigration, but rather a return to a conservative version of a German nation-state based on "Judeo-Christian" values, which both linguistically and in practice represents an explicit discrimination against Muslims and Islam. Moreover, their demands that Muslims assimilate into German society combined with claims that Muslims on the whole are incapable of assimilation into European society are not only contradictory but serve to further racial discrimination and foment a form of cultural fundamentalism. While the AfD has gained seats in many German state parliaments, its strongest support remains in eastern Germany. Similarly, the popularity of Pegida, a social movement that was formed and based in Dresden, raises questions as to why anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiments are stronger in the eastern German states. By examining the platform of the AfD and published positions of Pegida, this study suggests that right-wing constructions of Islam in eastern Germany as an ethnoreligion promote policies of ethnopluralism that are rooted in notions of cultural organicism designed to ostracize Muslims as part of a broader rejection of multiculturalism.
The Populist Rise of the AfD and Anti-Immigration
The AfD was founded in 2013 as a conservative economic party initially opposing the Federal Republic's response to the Eurocrisis, but it subsequently repositioned itself after the 2015 immigration wave as a conservative, anti-immigrant, right-wing populist party that embraces what Cas Mudde has termed an ideational brand of populism, one that rejects the established political elite and lays claim to being the true voice of the people.2 For both historic and economic reasons, this brand of populism, while not new,3 has had a particularly strong hold in eastern Germany, where Pegida was founded and where the AfD has had its largest electoral...