In Denmark we eat pork and shake hands! Islam and the anti-Islamic emblems of cultural difference in Danish neo-nationalism

This article argues that constructions of Danishness and Danish culture in neo-nationalist right-wing discourse have increasingly become structured around a marked opposition to Islam Muslim immigrants. My analysis draws on Frederik Barth’s understanding ethnic identity as constituted through processes demarcation boundaries vis-à-vis other groups. In such processes, certain cultural phenomena, both material immaterial, can be elevated emblems difference or symbolic markers an in-group’s shared identity. The explores how different phenomena freedom speech, pork, winter swimming/mixed-gender swimming handshakes salient topics political public debates about integration Denmark. I argue these all emblematic allegedly distinctive because they serve the purpose demarcating Islam.