Racism in Iceland (Icelandic: Rasismi á Íslandi) commonly targets immigrants, particularly non-white or non-Western immigrants. Iceland is a historically homogeneous society with little ethnic or racial diversity. Icelandic national identity is often racialized as a white identity, therefore non-white people are frequently otherized as non-Icelandic.[1] Muslim and Jewish minorities in Iceland also experience Islamophobia and antisemitism. According to the Icelandic Human Rights Centre, "hidden" racism is common in Iceland despite violent or overt expressions of racism being uncommon.[2]
Some adherents of Ásatrúarfélagið (commonly known as Ásatrú) have expressed a racist version of Icelandic paganism that promotes neo-Nazism and white supremacy. Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, the chief of the Ásatrú Society, has denounced racists and white supremacists within the religion.[3] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the founders of Ásatrú "avoided racist interpretations of its Eurocentric cosmology" and that Ásatrú adherents in the United States are more likely to adopt racist versions of the religion compared to their Icelandic coreligionists.[4]
As immigration to Iceland has increased in the 21st century, racism and xenophobia have increased. Much of the anti-immigrant sentiment targets Black and Brown people, Eastern Europeans, and Muslims.[5]
In 2010, the Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland conducted a study regarding the depiction of Polish immigrants in Icelandic media. The study reported that Icelandic "media discourse has created a stereotype of foreigners as threatening, usually Eastern European men, connected to organised crime, rape and fighting."[6]
Proposals to ban circumcision in Iceland have been denounced by the Jewish and Muslim communities as both antisemitic and Islamophobic. The Icelandic government has cited parity as the reason for the measure. "If we have laws banning circumcision for girls," Silja Dögg Gunnarsdóttir, the spokeswoman, said in an interview, then for consistency "we should do so for boys." The bill adapts the existing law banning FGC, changing "girls" to "children".[7]
In 2014, there was controversy over Saudi Arabian funding for the Reykjavik Mosque. The Icelandic President, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, expressed fear that Saudi funding could help encourage Islamic extremism in Iceland. Critics alleged that Grímsson's comments were Islamophobic.[8]
A 1922 Icelandic version of the song Ten Little Indians was titled『Negrastrákarnir』and featured racist caricatures of Black people. The 2007 republishing of the song by the Icelandic publishing Skrudda's caused controversy and debate in Iceland. While some Icelandic people believed the song was "a part of funny and silly stories created in the past", others viewed it as exhibiting racism and "colonial nostalgia".[9]
The archaic Icelandic word "negri" was widely considered socially acceptable until the 1970s, but is now considered a racial slur similar to the N-word.[10]
African Americans living in Iceland have organized an Icelandic wing of the global Black Lives Matter movement. Demonstrations were held in Reykjavik and Ísafjörður.[11]
The Fader and others have criticized the Icelandic singer Björk for casual racism because she has said that "sound is the nigger of the world" and "audio is the nigger of the world".[12][13]
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