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Bibliogr. p. 404-418. Index

The conflict between Christianity and Islam is a core issue for all varieties of European neo-nationalist and nativist right-wing ideo­logical organisation, from populist and far-right parties to extra-parliamentary groups and individuals. As a mundane political-social critique, this defensive and nationalistic form of anti-Islamism focuses on the downsides of mass immigration from Northern Africa and the Middle­ East, stressing the incompatibility of gross gender inequality, sexual intolerance and religiously motivated Islamist terrorism as well as the theocratic sharia system of laws with the secular European model of society. Antisemitism makes an appearance in the guise of the old Nazi concept which portrays 'World Jewry' as a community of international financial exploiters, allegedly inspired in their misdeeds by their religion. However, this notion is being countered by a stronger, pro­semitic ideology, portraying the state of Israel as an ally in the struggle against Islam(ism). As 'traditional' European religions, Christianity and the different historical and local varieties of paganism serve as important points of positive identification.

The conflict between Christianity and Islam is a core issue for all varieties of European neo-nationalist and nativist right-wing ideological organisation, from populist and far-right parties to extra-parliamentary groups and individuals. As a mundane political-social critique, this defensive and nationalistic form of anti-Islamism focuses on the downsides of mass immigration from Northern Africa and the Middle-East, stressing the incompatibility of gross gender inequality, sexual intolerance and religiously motivated Islamist terrorism as well as the theocratic sharia system of laws with the secular European model of society (Vuorinen 2014: 188–94). Antisemitism makes an appearance in the guise of the old Nazi concept which portrays 'World Jewry' as a community of international financial exploiters, allegedly inspired in their misdeeds by their religion. However, this notion is being countered by a stronger, prosemitic ideology, portraying the state of Israel as an ally in the struggle against Islam(ism). As 'traditional' European religions, Christianity and the different historical and local varieties of paganism serve as important points of positive identification. ; Peer reviewed

The article deals with a prominent and unusual Finnish nobleman, Nils Henrik Pinello (1802-79), of Italian family origin and active within the Finnish economic, political, cultural and entertainment circles around the middle decades of the 19th century. This extraordinary man of chequered career attempted most of the professions iconic to the 19thcentury economic and societal modernisation. An eventually hapless manor and saw mill owner, a Finnish bachelor of arts with a Swedish doctoral diploma on mining, who occasionally engaged also as civil servant, he successfully re-invented himself in mid-life – as a journalist, author and playwright, restaurant owner and theatre, music and history enthusiast, based in his native town Turku, the one-time capital of Finland. He also landed the membership of the first, 1848-49 planning committee for the Riddarhus (House of Nobility) building project, completed in Helsinki in 1858-62, and represented his family within the noble estate at the first three Four-Estate Diets, in 1863-64, 1867 and 1872. This article is an attempt at biographic research with a micro-historical twist. Juxtaposing Pinello with his political generation – the one that witnessed the gradual process of (re)establishing the Finnish four estate parliament, from 1840s to 1870s – I trace the political ideas of an exceptional nobleman who mainly identified with the flourishing small-town bourgeoisie of his period. I analyse, and contextualise, the occasions when Pinello commented on the projects, debates, politics, future prospects, lifestyles and appearances of the noble estate – by turns incisively, sarcastically, or making gentle fun of what he perceived as the outmoded or otherwise over-pompous aspirations of his fellow noblemen. The overall process that in the 19th century accompanied the retreat of the nobility from direct political power serves as the backdrop for his multiple roles in society, as well as an explanatory device for his ideological choices. Looking at an exceptional character, whose political excesses and flamboyant public style made him stand out among his peers, I bring to the focus not only the deviance of one person but also the prevailing normal patterns he may appear to transgress. Applying this so-called micro-macro link to the 19th-century Finnish nobility, I hope to cast a dual light on the process that eventually led to the abolishing of the four-estate system, nobility included, in favour of a unicameral parliament. ; Non peer reviewed

Defining things through binary opposition - male/female, familiar/foreign, life/death - forms the base of human thinking. Adding moral assessment to logic, we often represent binaries even as divisions into good and evil. Exclusions based on the division of Us vs. Them make their presence felt during any conflict, and become crucial in times of war. However, binary thinking is inherent also in peaceful, everyday conversation, when politics, social issues, ethnicities and religious identities