[6] Shortly before submitting his dissertation, in which he analyzed parliamentary debates on the ban of mosques and minarets in two Austrian counties,[7] he published his first book ‘Islamophobia in Austria’ together with Middle East scholar John Bunzl.
[citation needed] His research at the department of political science and sociology at the University of Salzburg focused on Muslim youth movements in Europe.
[22] Hafez publishes regularly in Austrian and international news media like The Guardian[23] Haaretz,[24] Middle East Eye,[25] Al-Jazeera English,[26] Der Standard and Die Presse.
He is a frequent interview partner for international media, among them BBC,[27] The Washington Post[28] and Democracy Now[29] Hafez identifies with what he calls the "racism studies-informed postcolonial approach" in studying Islamophobia.
The Islam dispositives revealed here show that the states legitimize their interference based on this implicitly reproduced imagination of the bad Muslims, and thus endeavor to ‘civilize’ Muslims subjects, reminding us again of the “white man's burden.”"[30] Hafez's most quoted article is 'Shifting borders: Islamophobia as common ground for building pan-European right-wing unity,' which appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Patterns of Prejudice.
[9] Authors include Prof. of English literature Olivier Esteves from France, sociologist James Carr from Ireland, political scientist Ineke van der Valk from the Netherlands, anthropologist Sindre Bangstad and Holocaust-studies Professor Cora Alexa Døvingfrom Norway, Polish social scientist Konrad Pędziwiatr,[35] historian Hikmet Karčić from Bosnia, sociologist Aleksandra Lewicki from Germany,[36] Italian sociologist Alfredo Alietti, social scientist Ana Frank from Ljubljana, religious studies Professor Mattias Gardell from Sweden, and historian Aristotle Kallis from Greece.
[41] In 2023, the social democratic MEP Joao Albuquerque (Portugal) supported the discussion of the report by the Brussels-based European Network on Religion & Belief (ENORB).
[55] In April of 2024, Hafez sued[56] the deradicalization expert Lorenzo Vidino for his involvement with the private detective firm Alp Services in a European-wide large-scale smearing campaign that The New Yorker had revealed.
[1] The Regional Court (that had allowed the initial unlawful raid) issued a decision that upheld the investigation against Prof. Hafez, citing his academic work.
"[57] According to Georgetown University, "this statement and the court’s decision are proof that the case against Prof. Farid Hafez is a dangerous sign of an attempt to silence the free speech and academic freedom of a prominent scholar.
"[58] In an "International Statement Opposing Use of Counter-Terrorism Powers to Target Islamophobia Expert," which was signed by more than 350 scholars, primarily from the United States of America, including Charles Taylor, Talal Asad and Peter Rose.
[59] The letter argued that this raid was "part of the international rise of authoritarian governmental suppression of Muslim civil society and critical scholarship in Western democracies".
They called upon the State Prosecutor "to close the case, and cease its intimidation of Dr Farid Hafez and others who have been wrongly attacked.