From far right to front and centre: Immigration and Islamophobia in the mainstream
Across the globe, far-right issues have been rising to prominence in the mainstream media and in politics. Why is this ideology becoming increasingly popular now, and who is benefitting from this way of thinking? To find out, we spoke with Newcastle University’s Professor of Social Geography, Peter Hopkins.
1 February 2026
Far-right in the mainstream?
Professor Peter Hopkins is a Professor of Social Geography at Newcastle University, where his research focuses on racism and Islamophobia, asylum and migration, and intersectionality. He helped set up the first ever Cross-Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia in the Scottish Parliament and led the public inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland. In 2023, Peter was awarded a prestigious three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, the culmination of which was his book on Everyday Islamophobia.
Read on to hear Peter’s thoughts on the rising popularity of far-right issues and what this means for us all.
The importance of a podium pledge
In 2024, then UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak led his campaign for re-election with the message of ‘stop the boats’. The fact that this issue was chosen to cover his podium stand is significant. It could have focused on education, public transport, NHS waiting lists, policing, or the environment. Instead, the focus was solely given to the issue of migration which leads to the mainstreaming of the idea that we should close our borders, which is a really far-right way of thinking about this issue. Although Sunak failed in his bid to be re-elected as Prime Minister, the focus solely on migration succeeded in mainstreaming this very far-right way of thinking.
While Sunak’s campaign for re-election was unsuccessful, it’s important that we don’t just sit back and assume that the mainstream will sort things out. Far-right ideas and political groups are likely to remain marginal if the wider system is not welcoming to them. However, in focusing on migration in this example, it works to amplify this issue and downplay (or completely ignore) a whole host of other issues that lots of people would likely find important when considering who to vote for.
So, the point here is not that we should never talk about issues like migration. It is more about the ways in which other issues – many of which are challenges to discuss and find a resolution to – are not featured very often at all, and instead, far-right ideas are given an exaggerated platform.
By focusing only on migration, it downplays (or completely ignores) other issues that lots of people would likely find important when considering who to vote for.
Profiting from misinformation and fear
So, stoking division, fear and hate in the mainstream can help you achieve your political goals. But it’s also lining the pockets of many. What I call the Islamophobia Industrial Complex is a web of organisations, agencies, and individuals who are financially benefiting from the promotion of Islamophobia. This includes far-right activists, think tanks, right-wing religious groups, the media, public intellectuals and figures, politicians, as well as the state, and in particular, the counter-terrorism apparatus funded by the state. These different groups essentially earn money by promoting Islamophobia, and some of them work very closely together to do this, with some making millions of pounds in the process.
The power of the Islamophobia Industrial Complex is such that anti-Muslim hatred can very easily be spread very quickly online and shared globally via online platforms, which then trickles down into everyday life, where the messages shared shape attitudes and behaviours, becoming a part of everyday lexicon.
When people talk about everyday Islamophobia, I have found that there is a tendency to see the everyday forms of Islamophobia as low-level or mundane and so not very important compared to ‘larger scale’ incidents: the explicit violence we witnessed during the riots in summer 2024 in the UK, the terrorist attacks committed in Oslo in 2011 or in the Christchurch massacre in 2019. But these microaggressions - daily insults or slights that indicate a sense of negativity or mistrust towards those who appear to be Muslim – work in tandem with the larger-scale incidents to mutually reinforce each other and embolden each other in the process.
Via the Islamophobia Industrial Complex, anti-Muslim hatred can easily be spread very quickly online which then trickles down into everyday life.
Silence as complicity
Inaction can often be as damaging as negative action. It is really important that people are actively anti-racist.
Being anti-racist is a lot more than just ‘not being racist’ as this means you will probably be silent or not act when racism is present. Being anti-racist means to describe and understand and then to call out and act upon - all the different ways racism operates - and to do so deliberately and as often as possible. Being anti-racist means to act vigilantly against racism to challenge it and bring it to an end. Being anti-racist is about calling out racism in all cases – and being an ally to those experiencing it.
To be anti-racist, you need to know about racism and understand what race means. Race is the fictional idea that people can be divided into groups based on characteristics such as skin colour, physique, facial features, or hair texture, and that these somehow tell us something about the family histories or social practices of such groups. Racism involves discriminating against or being prejudiced towards people or groups based on these socially and politically constructed groups that they are perceived to belong to.
Absences and silences can be an important feature of Islamophobia. Absences can be about the ways in which Islamophobia is not referred to, is missing from discussion, or where conversation of the issue is cut off and denied. Absences can easily turn into silencing as Muslims may be prevented from speaking about Islamophobia and denied the opportunity to participate in dialogue about it.
Absence can also be the lack of challenging that the mainstreaming of far-right narratives face. Issues such as migration are quite easy for politicians and elites to refer to. It is much harder to discuss how to address NHS waiting lists, the cost-of-living crisis, rising transport costs, or other such issues that are important to people as they go about their everyday lives. I would recommend that people press their elected representatives on these issues rather than letting them get away with mainstreaming very far-right ways of thinking which essentially provides a back-door platform for far-right groups.
Further reading
Everyday experiences of anti-Muslim racism include accounts of Islamophobia in public spaces, in the school playground, on social media and on public transport. Peter’s book Everyday Islamophobia explores how Islamophobia pervades the daily lives of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, drawing upon work by Peter and leading researchers.
Everyday Islamophobia tends to be regarded as low-level or trivial. In his book, Peter considers the influence of organisations, agencies, and individuals on those who find themselves negotiating their significant harms in education, the community and online. It concludes by exploring strategies to challenge and resist Islamophobia.
Use code EVI20 to get 20% off when buying Everyday Islamophobia online.
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