1st SEPTEMBER 2019 - 31st JANUARY 2020

Anti-Islamism

Hostility to the religion of Islam, often with a perception of it as being violent and radical, and a danger to Western society. The myth of Islam as a religion of the sword was brought to Western Europe in the Middle Ages at the time of the Crusades (religious wars) and has survived. The terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001 (9/11) and other attacks have been used by anti-Islamists to portray all Muslims as radical fanatics.

Anti-Judaism

General rejection of Judaism (the religion and culture of Jewish people) and those who follow it (Jews) based on religious prejudice or competing religious beliefs. Judaism is presented as a danger to modern Western society. Anti-Judaism is sometimes also called religious antisemitism.

Anti-Muslim racism

Form of cultural racism against Muslims that considers Western cultures superior to Islamic cultures and mutually exclusive. Cultural symbols like a hijab or a turban may be used to judge and discriminate against groups of people.

Antigypsyism

Antigypsyism describes the discrimination against Roma and Sinti or anyone perceived as being a ‘Gypsy’. The word ‘Gypsy’ is often used for Roma and Sinti and more generally for other travelling or socially excluded people, and is often considered offensive.

There are strong, persistent myths linking Roma with a ‘traveling lifestyle’. Antigypsyist discrimination takes forms such as insults, assaults, ghettoisation, and exclusion from education and jobs. People may be forced to leave a country.

Roma and Sinti were interned, sterilised and murdered during the National Socialist period (1933-45). This genocide, also known as Porajmos, was only officially recognised by Germany in 1982. Official state institutions such as the police in Germany and other countries continued to use the discriminatory definitions of Roma after the National Socialist period.

Antigypsyism has continued and even increased in many European countries since the economic crisis. Discrimination against Roma and Sinti is even part of official government policies in some countries.

Antisemitism

Antisemitism is the most common term for hatred towards Jews. A homogeneous group of ‘Jews’ is constructed, and people are discriminated against on the basis of what a Jew is imagined to be.
Antisemitism is a form of discrimination that goes back many centuries, often with a religious motivation. The term itself emerged in the 19th century and was based on racist ideology that was commonly accepted then. Antisemitism was a major factor in the National Socialists’ persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.

Nowadays antisemitism is often related to the state of Israel (anti-Zionism), for example when Jews everywhere in the world are held responsible for actions by Israel or when Israel is judged by different standards than other democratic states.

Conspiracy theories accusing Jews of wanting to do harm are still widespread, particularly on social media.

Auschwitz

Network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during the Second World War in occupied Poland. Auschwitz I was built to hold Polish political prisoners, who began to arrive in May 1940. From 1942 Auschwitz II-Birkenau became the largest centre for the immediate, direct extermination of Jews. People were selected upon arrival. Most were murdered directly in gas chambers, while others were used as forced labour. In the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau 1.1 million people were murdered, 90% of them for being defined as Jewish. The next largest groups of victims were non-Jewish Poles, Roma and Sinti, and Soviet prisoners of war. When Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945, only a few sick inmates were left in the camp – all the others had been sent away to other concentration camps shortly before on so-called death marches.

Bisexual

Someone who may be attracted romantically and/or sexually to both men and women.

Bullying

Repeated aggressive behaviour intended to hurt; can be verbal, emotional, physical or cyber. When carried out by a group, it is called mobbing. Bullies may target social class, race, size, strength, gender, sexual orientation, religion, appearance, behaviour, body language or ability. Bullying can result in serious, long-lasting problems.

Discrimination

Unequal treatment based on categories such as someone’s ancestry, religion, gender, sexuality or (dis)ability. Although most countries have included basic human rights in their constitution or laws, which demand equal treatment for all, discrimination still happens on personal and societal levels. It often stems from widespread and socially accepted (mostly negative) images of certain groups, or from societal norms.

Discrimination against LGTB+

LGBT+ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people) are discriminated against when their sexual orientation and/or gender identity is rejected.

The discrimination takes many forms such as hurtful language, hate speech, social exclusion and hate crime (physical violence), but also structural discrimination by companies and state institutions. It is sometimes called homophobia, although that wrongly suggests a medical problem: a ‘phobia’ or psychological fear that can’t be controlled.

In Nazi Germany, homosexuals were persecuted and murdered, but homosexuality was considered a crime in many countries long after the Second World War and people in Europe were still being sent to prison for being homosexual in the 1960s. The World Health Organisation considered it an illness until 1992. Germany, for example, only fully decriminalised homosexuality in 1994.

Discrimination against LGBT+ increased rapidly in the 1990s with misconceptions about the HIV/ AIDs epidemic. Although homosexual relationships are no longer illegal in European countries, they are still not accepted by everyone. Hostility and assaults are common.

Discrimination against Muslims

Muslims are discriminated against on the basis of their faith, appearance, name, place of birth and perceived identity. A homogeneous group of ‘Muslims’ is imagined to exist. There have always been flourishing Muslim communities in Europe, and discrimination against such communities has a long history. It is sometimes called Islamophobia, but that description is felt by many to be unsatisfactory because it uses the medical term ‘phobia’ – an anxiety disorder a person cannot control. Discrimination against Muslims affects not only religious Muslims but anyone whose appearance or culture might indicate Muslim heritage.

There has been an increase in discrimination against Muslims since the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001 and the recent terrorist attacks in Europe. In Europe, many right-wing groups use anti-Muslim fears to promote their political goals. Typical stereotypes include the idea that Islam is sexist, old-fashioned and violent.

Discrimination against Roma and Sinti

Social exclusion or racial discrimination against Roma or Sinti people, which may be systemic or personal.

Ethnicity

Belonging to a social group with the same or similar language, cultural heritage, history, homeland etc., often by birth. It sometimes gets mixed up with the terms nation, people or race.

Gender identity

Someone’s inner sense of being male, female, a blend of both or neither. It may not be the gender assigned at birth.

Holocaust

Term most commonly used for the mass murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany and its accomplices during the Second World War. Coming from the Greek language, it means ‘a completely (holos) burnt (kaustos) sacrificial offering’. The term is offensive to many people as it could be seen to mean that the killing of Jews was a sacrifice. Often, the term Shoah is preferred. A broader definition of the Holocaust includes non-Jewish victims of the Nazi German policy of mass murder during the Second World War.

Homophobia

Prejudice against, and fear or hatred of LGBT+ people and homosexuality. The term is criticised as it creates a pseudo-medical impression. People who fear or hate homosexuals mostly think they have rational reasons for their feelings, often referring to religious or heteronormativeconcepts.

Nazi

Follower of National Socialism. The term indicates a member of the Nazi party, the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), but it is also often used broadly to describe anyone who took part in the persecution of Jews, Roma and Sinti and other victims of Nazi Germany.

Prejudice

A preconceived opinion based on attributes such as gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin or religion. Prejudices are not based on reason or actual experience; they are mostly negative; and they are often used to justify discrimination. In contrast to stereotypes, prejudices are emotionally charged. People often have unconscious prejudices, which are therefore hard to overcome.

Racism

Racism is the devaluing of people considered to be of other ‘races’. The idea that you can group people by ‘race’ has long been rejected by scientists, but racism continues to exist.

Racism is based on the belief that there are important biological differences between groups of people that make them superior or inferior. Racists judge other people by appearance – such as skin, eyes, hair, or language – and lump them together into a group.

Racism has a long history, especially in the discrimination of black people. The term itself appeared in the 19th century, with the rise of the idea that people belong biologically to certain groups (‘races’) so they must have ‘typical’ characteristics. This concept played a large role in colonialism, as it was the basis for the idea that ‘white’ people were entitled to exploit and oppress other people. Racism puts people at a disadvantage at school, at work, in everyday life. Racist attacks can range from hurtful language, to taking away possessions or the right to live somewhere, and murder.

Refugee

A person who flees their country because of war or racial, religious or political persecution. People who have been granted refugee status are defined and protected in international law and must not be expelled or returned to situations in which they are in danger. Asylum seekers are people whose request for sanctuary has not yet been processed.

SS

Abbreviation for Schutzstaffel (protection unit), the elite military organisation of the Nazi party NSDAP, which had its own intelligence agency. It owned many companies that profited by using the forced labour of concentration camp inmates. The SS was in charge of all the concentration camps and mainly responsible for all the mass killings in the camps.

Stereotype

Widely held but oversimplified image of a particular group. They can be positive, negative or neutral. Stereotypes can cause people to exaggerate differences between groups, either by falsely seeing them as homogeneous or by focusing only on differences.

Xenophobia

Fear or hatred of anybody and anything perceived as strange or different from oneself, for example people from other countries or cultures. It can include a fear of losing identity, suspicion of the activities of the ‘other’, aggression towards them, or even the desire to get rid of them to preserve the culture of the own group.

GLOSSARY taken from Stories that Move: https://www.storiesthatmove.org/en/glossary/