Abstract
This talk discusses how the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) adapted anti-Muslim discourse to their political purposes and how that discourse was then appropriated by the conservative center-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) to explain the anti-Muslim swerve in Austrian politics, preparing the way for a right-wing coalition government between conservatives and far-right actors that would subsequently institutionalize anti-Muslim political demands and change the shape of the civic conditions and public perceptions of Islam and the Muslim community in a country that had has stood out for its longstanding state recognition of the Muslim community as early as 1912.