{"id":388,"date":"2018-01-09T17:15:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T17:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/?p=388"},"modified":"2018-01-09T17:15:15","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T17:15:15","slug":"hungarys-leader-says-refugees-should-be-called-muslim-invaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/2018\/01\/09\/hungarys-leader-says-refugees-should-be-called-muslim-invaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s Leader Says Refugees Should Be Called \u2018Muslim Invaders\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Joban (Huffington Post) –<\/p>\n

Hungary\u2019s combative Prime Minister Viktor Orban has begun the new year in inflammatory fashion, referring to Syrian asylum seekers \u2015 that is, people arriving in Hungary after having fled the war ravaging their home country \u2015 as \u201cMuslim invaders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Orban has taken frequent aim at the European Union\u2019s refugee policies. He has fiercely protested the EU\u2019s demand that Hungary take in about 1,300 refugees in an effort to distribute asylum claims throughout the continent. He\u2019s spent millions of dollars on border fences, and\u00a0called migration<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca poison.\u201d\u00a0But his comments Monday were especially blatant in their appeal to religious and nationalist sentiments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cWe do not consider these people to be Muslim refugees.\u00a0We regard them as Muslim invaders,\u201d\u00a0Orban told Germany\u2019s\u00a0Bild newspaper<\/a>. \u201cFor example, to arrive from Syria in Hungary, you have to cross four countries, all of which are not as rich as Germany, but stable.\u00a0So they are not running for their lives there already.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cWe believe that a large number of Muslims inevitably leads to parallel societies, because Christian and Muslim society will never unite,\u201d he said later in the interview. \u201cMulticulturalism is just an illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Orban\u2019s renewed attacks on migration should be seen in the context of Hungary\u2019s upcoming elections, set to take place in March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Although Orban and his Fidesz party are expected to win at the polls, the prime minister is resorting to his customary method of appealing to the far right and stoking fears over immigration.\u00a0<\/em>Orban has for years exploited anti-Islam and anti-refugee sentiments in the country to stir up support from his political base and fend off challenges from parties with even more extreme nationalist views.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Hungary has higher levels of anti-refugee beliefs and more negative views of minority groups than the average EU member state,\u00a0according to a\u00a02016 Pew survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Although Muslims make up only 0.4 percent of Hungary\u2019s population, Orban has repeatedly characterized them as a threat to the country\u2019s Christian identity. He has paired this with populist appeals to carry out what he calls the will of the people and take on the European Union\u2019s ruling elite, particularly when it comes to immigration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In the past month, the prime minister has\u00a0ramped up his rhetoric<\/a>.\u00a0He recently repeated his claim that EU migration policy has failed, and argued that right-wing wins in other recent elections, such as in Austria, prove his anti-immigration policies will spread throughout the union.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cI believe 2018 will be the year of the restoration of the will of the people in Europe,\u201d\u00a0Orban said<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\n

Orban\u2019s renewed calls for ethnic homogeneity serve as a reminder that European leaders in 2018 will have to grapple with how to handle increasingly belligerent governments, like Hungary and Poland, that seek to centralize power and resist the EU\u2019s humanitarian polices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The EU is already\u00a0taking legal action<\/a>\u00a0against Hungary for its refusal to take in refugees and its targeting of academic institutions \u2015 the latter a result of Hungary passing a law that the EU alleges is an attempt to close down a liberal-leaning university founded by billionaire George Soros.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This year will likely see an attempt from France and Germany to revamp and modernize the EU, which has seen deep fractures emerge amid Brexit and the refugee crisis. As the German and French governments pursue a plan to increase economic integration and political cooperation in the bloc, it\u2019s likely that Orban will cast himself as a primary antagonist to officials in Brussels in order to further his support at home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joban (Huffington Post) – Hungary\u2019s combative Prime Minister Viktor Orban has begun the new year in inflammatory fashion, referring to […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[58,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-islamophobia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":390,"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.jobanmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}