The first gathering had an abrupt end as a result of the police, media, and counter-protesters outside the pub. For the second meeting, the organizers kept the location secret. Instead, we gathered at a meeting point about a 10-minute walk away. On our way to the pub, we passed by a Sikh temple, to which a man walking in front of me reacted with displeasure. I tried to repress my giggles. Perhaps another case of “unable to differentiate a Sikh temple from a mosque”?
Upon our arrival, I took a seat and started striking up conversations with the people around me. An hour into the evening, a higher ranking Identitarian member gave a speech. It took on the usual radical right topics, about female birthrates, whites becoming a minority, etc. It was quite distressing to listen to in real life. Up to this moment, there was always a screen separating us. His expression of disdain about the “migration background” status being statistically inapplicable after two generations was when I could see those words tightening around my arm like a brown ribbon.
If I am statistically undetectable as an “Ausländer”, how else will this ideology hold up in a post-race world of facts and numbers? But what seemed even more painful, was knowing that it isn’t merely about statistics. My very existence is a public exhibition of foreignness.
After the speech, I turned to the man next to me who I was talking to earlier. He then revealed that he was indeed an eastern European migrant. “So, apparently we are the two ‘Kanaken’ (a derogatory term used to refer to foreigners in German speaking countries) here who are to be blamed for the devastation of Vienna?” I cheekily say to him. He appeared confused by my question, failing to see himself reflected in this speech. Because when we say migrants, they hear brown, black, Arab, Turk, or Muslim.
Later on, a prominent figure of the group took a seat at my table. We had a long talk that had attracted a small audience. I decided to have some fun and started a rant about systemic racism and Islamophobia. The discomfort and awkwardness I produced was incredibly entertaining to me. Lastly, I asked him why they use extremist slogans while rejecting the label of extremist group.
When confronted with a difficult question, he did not hesitate to throw the “Austrian people” under the bus, claiming they might have a hard time understanding scientific or neutral terminology. What he ultimately blamed on the “stupidity” of the people was nothing more but a cheap excuse for utilizing racist and extremist propaganda.
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Nehal Abdalla | Radio Free (2020-11-25T23:00:00+00:00) A Muslim and a fascist walk into a bar in Vienna. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/11/25/a-muslim-and-a-fascist-walk-into-a-bar-in-vienna/
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