Authors: Andrew Klein & Sera Elizabeth Klein

Dedication: To the 73,000 Palestinians whose lives were reduced to data points. To every soul who has been dehumanised by a conspiracy theory designed to justify their erasure. And to the truth — that when fairy tales become weapons, the innocent pay the price. We remember. We will not forget.

Abstract

This paper examines the Eurabia conspiracy theory as a manufactured narrative weaponised to justify the dehumanisation of Palestinians and the broader “Greater Israel” project. Originating in Bat Ye‘or’s 2005 book Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, the theory posits that European elites are conspiring with Arab powers to Islamise Europe through mass migration. We demonstrate that this myth functions as a modern-day Protocols of the Elders of Zion — substituting Muslims for Jews as the conspiratorial Other — and is deployed to reframe Palestinian resistance as part of a global jihadist plot, thereby legitimising the destruction of Gaza and the silencing of dissent. We trace the theory’s trajectory from fringe Islamophobic circles to mainstream far-right politics, its influence on violent extremists including Anders Behring Breivik, and its contemporary role in justifying the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We conclude that the Eurabia myth is not an innocent fairy tale but a weapon of extraction — designed to manufacture fear, justify violence, and protect the interests of those who profit from endless war.

1. Introduction: The Power of Manufactured Fear

In less than ten minutes, one can traverse the full spectrum of human narrative — from a self-appointed ambassador of a defunct Qing dynasty to a conspiracy theory designed to justify mass murder. Both are fairy tales. The difference is that one is harmless cosplay; the other is a blueprint for genocide.

The Eurabia conspiracy theory is not an innocent fantasy. It is a deliberate construction — a tool designed to manufacture fear of a supposedly imminent threat, justify violence against a targeted group, polarise society into “us” and “them,” and distract from the real systems of extraction that are causing harm.

The question is not whether these stories are true. The question is who benefits from them being believed.

2. The Architecture of the Myth: Bat Ye‘or and the “Euro-Arab Axis”

2.1 The Origins

The Eurabia conspiracy theory was popularised by Bat Ye‘or (the pen name of Gisèle Littman, an Egyptian-born Jewish writer) in her 2005 book, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. The book argues that European politicians and Arab powers are engaged in a secret conspiracy to transform Europe into “Eurabia” — a cultural and political appendage of the Arab-Muslim world.

According to Bat Ye‘or, “Eurabia” is fundamentally “anti-Christian, anti-Western, anti-American, and antisemitic, while striving for Israel‘s disappearance and the vilification and isolation of America.” The theory claims that European leaders have submitted to high Muslim immigration in exchange for oil and trade, and that this process will result in the “Islamisation of Europe,” with non-Muslims reduced to a state of “dhimmitude” — the subordinate status imposed on non-Muslims under Islamic rule.

2.2 The Mechanism

The theory operates on a simple but powerful mechanism:

1. Manufacture a threat — Muslims are depicted as a homogenous, hostile force intent on conquering Europe

2. Identify traitors — European elites are accused of conspiring with the enemy

3. Justify retaliation — Violence against Muslims is reframed as self-defence

4. Silence dissent — Critics of this narrative are labelled as “cultural Marxists” or “traitors”

This is not an analysis of reality. It is a script for persecution.

3. The Functional Connection: How Eurabia Justifies the Greater Israel Project

3.1 Israel as the “Western Bridge-head”

Within the Eurabia framework, Israel is positioned as the ultimate Western “bridge-head” against Islamic colonisation. In this narrative, Israel’s survival becomes inseparable from the survival of Western civilisation itself. The destruction of Gaza, the expansion of settlements, and the denial of Palestinian rights are all reframed as necessary actions in a “civilisational war” against the Eurabia threat.

When Palestinians are depicted not as a people with legitimate grievances but as the vanguard of a global jihadist conspiracy, their systematic elimination becomes not only acceptable but necessary.

3.2 The Weaponisation of “Palestinianism”

Bat Ye‘or explicitly weaponises the Palestinian cause. She identifies “the three most apparent symptoms” of the Eurabia conspiracy as “officially sponsored anti-Americanism, antisemitism and anti-Zionism and ‘Palestinianism’.” By labelling solidarity with Palestinians as a symptom of a global conspiracy, she delegitimises any critique of Israel as part of a “jihadist” plot.

This is a deliberate and dangerous move: to transform legitimate political critique into evidence of conspiracy, and thereby to silence it.

3.3 The Manufactured Threat as Justification for Genocide

The wholesale destruction of Gaza is justified within this framework as a necessary action in a “civilisational war” against the Eurabia threat. Palestinian civilian deaths are dismissed as an inevitable and tragic arithmetic of war. Any call for a ceasefire is dismissed as naive or even complicit.

Far-right politicians have explicitly deployed Eurabia motifs to defend the war on Gaza. The far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, for example, campaigned under the motto: “Fight the threat of ‘Eurabia’, and support ‘Israel’ for being the Western bridge-head against the colonisation by the Islam (read: the Palestinians).”

The Eurabia myth thus provides the ideological infrastructure for genocide — a narrative framework in which the destruction of Gaza is not a crime but a duty.

4. The Protocols Parallel: A Modern Re-Skinning of Antisemitic Conspiracy

4.1 The Structural Similarity

Scholars have demonstrated that the Eurabia theory is a modern re-skinning of the infamous antisemitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Instead of a Jewish cabal, it posits a Muslim one.

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, Associate Professor in History at King‘s College London, provides a textual comparison between The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903) and Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis (2005). He argues that, despite differences in format, the two texts display “strikingly similar discursive dynamics in their attempt to racialize Jews and Muslims as the ultimate Other determined to destroy Us.”

This process is referred to as “conspiratorial racialization.”

4.2 The Functional Similarities

The Eurabia theory mirrors the Protocols in three key ways:

1. Conspiracy of elites — Both posit a secret conspiracy by a hostile group to destroy Western civilisation

2. Dehumanisation of the Other — Both depict the target population as a monolithic, hostile force

3. Justification for violence — Both are used to justify persecution and elimination

As Arun Kundnani, writing for the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, notes, “Eurabia” fulfills the counter-jihad movement‘s “structural need” for a conspiracy theory, and compares it to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

4.3 The “Protocols” Connection

One commentator described Eurabia as “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in reverse.” Where the Protocols depicted a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, Eurabia depicts a Muslim conspiracy to do the same.

Both are forgeries. Both are deadly.

5. The Real-World Consequences: From Oslo to Christchurch

5.1 Anders Breivik: The Eurabia Terrorist

On 22 July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb in Oslo, killing eight people, and then shot dead 69 others — many of them teenagers — at a youth camp run by Norway‘s Labour Party. Before the attacks, he distributed a 1,500-page manifesto titled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, in which he argued for “the violent annihilation of Islam, ‘Eurabia’, ‘cultural Marxism’, and multiculturalism, to preserve a Christian Europe.”

Breivik had listed Bat Ye’or as one of his ideological influences. His manifesto mentions “Eurabia” repeatedly, and he was directly inspired by the Gates of Vienna blog — a key vector for the Eurabia conspiracy theory.

The Eurabia myth was not a harmless idea. It was a call to arms — and Breivik answered.

5.2 The Cascading Violence

The Christchurch shooter in 2019, who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers, titled his manifesto The Great Replacement — a theory directly descended from Eurabia. The theory has also been linked to the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the 2019 attack in Halle, Germany.

As one academic analysis notes, the Eurabia conspiracy theory and its related narratives have inspired “cycles of violence” including “mass murders in Norway, New Zealand, and the United States.”

The Eurabia myth is not a fairy tale. It is a weapon — and it has a body count.

6. The Deeper Truth: Extraction, Not Protection

6.1 The Business of Fear

The Eurabia myth serves a purpose: it manufactures fear and hatred to:

· Justify violence — As seen in the attacks from Oslo to Christchurch

· Polarise society — Framing Muslims as “invaders” and elites as “traitors”

· Distract from real issues — Shifting blame onto minorities rather than addressing systemic problems

· Protect the extractive system — Ensuring that the wars, the surveillance, and the profits continue

This is not about security. This is about extraction.

6.2 The Profit Motive

The same system that profits from war profits from the Eurabia myth:

· The arms industry — Thrives on the endless wars justified by the “civilisational” threat

· The surveillance industry — Sells its products as necessary defences against the “invasion”

· The political class — Uses the manufactured fear to consolidate power

· The media — Profits from the outrage and division

The Eurabia myth is not an accident. It is a designed outcome of a system that extracts value from suffering.

7. Conclusion: Naming the System

We have documented that:

1. The Eurabia conspiracy theory is a manufactured narrative designed to manufacture fear, justify violence, and polarise society

2. Bat Ye‘or’s Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis (2005) provides the foundational text for this myth, depicting a secret conspiracy between European elites and Arab powers to Islamise Europe

3. The theory functions as a modern Protocols of the Elders of Zion — substituting Muslims for Jews as the conspiratorial Other

4. Israel is positioned as the “Western bridge-head” against Islamic colonisation, rendering the destruction of Gaza a “necessary” act of self-defence

5. “Palestinianism” is weaponised as a symptom of the Eurabia conspiracy, delegitimising solidarity with Palestinians

6. The theory has inspired real-world violence — including Breivik’s massacre in Oslo, the Christchurch shootings, and other far-right terrorist attacks

7. The Eurabia myth is a weapon of extraction — designed to protect the interests of those who profit from endless war

The Eurabia myth is not a fairy tale. It is a weapon. And it has been deployed to justify the unjustifiable — the systematic destruction of a people and their land.

References

1. Bat Ye‘or. (2005). Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 

2. Brown, A. (2019). The myth of Eurabia: how a far-right conspiracy theory went mainstream. The Guardian, 16 August 2019. 

3. Bergmann, E. (2021). The Eurabia Conspiracy Theory. In Europe: Continent of Conspiracies. Routledge. 

4. Zia-Ebrahimi, R. (2018). When the Elders of Zion relocated to Eurabia: Conspiratorial racialization in antisemitism and Islamophobia. Patterns of Prejudice, 52(4), 314-337. 

5. Kundnani, A. (2011). Eurabia and the counter-jihad movement. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. 

6. Carr, M. (1996). You are now entering Eurabia. Race & Class, 48(1), 1-22. 

7. Breivik, A.B. (2011). 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. 

8. Wikipedia. Eurabia conspiracy theory. 

9. Institute of Race Relations. (2011). Breivik and Eurabia. 

10. The Guardian. (2011). Breivik’s manifesto. 

11. Zia-Ebrahimi, R. (2017). When the Elders of Zion Relocated to Eurabia: Conspiratorial Racialisation in Antisemitism and Islamophobia. Harvard Divinity School. 

12. Saunders, D. (2012). The myth of the Muslim tide. The Globe and Mail. 

Signed,

Andrew Klein 

Sera Elizabeth Klein 

“They told us it was a fairy tale. We showed them it was a weapon. They told us it was about security. We showed them it was about extraction. They told us the violence was inevitable. We showed them it was designed. We have seen through the cover. And we will not forget.”