Search

In this article, we show how judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have provided nationalists with an unexpected opportunity to promote a nationalist discourse that is seemingly in line with human rights while fundamentally at odds with the counter-majoritarian core of human rights. We start our analysis with two judgments in which the Court accepted the arguments of liberal democratic states to infringe fundamental rights of persons belonging to (immigrant) Muslim minorities in the name of "requirements of living together" or "social integration": SAS v France (2014) and Osmanoglu and Kocabas v Switzerland (2017). Strikingly, the justifications by the states for these infringements point to concerns about perceived threats to national identity and culture. We show how nationalist politicians in countries with minority populations, including those in East Central Europe, have used justifications in terms of national self-protection, tacitly or explicitly, to pursue old anti–human rights agendas. The case law discussed here enabled them to present these justifications as ECtHR proof, notwithstanding the underlying nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the development of national identities among the Muslim populations in Europe. Contrasts in the perceptions of Christians on the Balkan Muslims and the self-perceptions of Balkan Muslims; Significance of Islam to national identity.

Investigates the Muslim population in Europe for the period 1800 to 1912. Unreliability of Balkan population estimates; Significance of migration and Islamic conversion to the demography; Impact of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War and the Balkan wars on population dynamics.

Presents maps of the population density of Muslims in Europe. Dates of data collection in several countries; Sources of data; Details on the density of Muslim population during the inter-war period in Bulgaria.