How Islamophobia affects Muslims living in Germany

Since Hamas' brutal terrorist attack on Israel, Muslims living in Germany have noticed an increase in harassment and attacks – bringing back post-9/11 memories.” I relived the weeks after 9/11. I feel like I was taken back there,” says Suleman Malik, a Muslim living in the eastern German state of Thuringia, as he recalls the 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

Malik knows that Muslims across Germany are facing more recriminations since the start of Israel's war against Hamas: women being reprimanded for wearing headscarves, for example, or communities receiving hateful messages.

The 35-year-old Pakistani is, as they say in Germany, a well-integrated Muslim from the Ahmadiyya community, which began as a reform movement in the late 19th century. Malik speaks fluent German, works as a consultant and is deputy mayor of the Reith neighborhood , in the city of Erfurt. In recent years he has also been involved in the construction of a small mosque on the outskirts of the city.

Muslims as partners in the fight against anti-Semitism

Malik says that people who feel and express empathy for the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza are immediately “seen as anti-Semitic, although not every Jew feels that the Israeli government is acting correctly.”

He condemns the terror that Hamas directs at Israel and cites a passage from the Quran that prohibits attacks on other people's religious sites. He also emphasizes that “Muslims are obliged to protect Jewish life” and that those who did not do so did not understand the lessons of Islam. German society, he says, should see Muslims as partners in the fight against anti-Semitism.

Malik also spoke to DW about his home state, Thuringia, and the ultra-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose local directory has been classified by German domestic intelligence as an extremist organization.

“We have a party that has declared Islamophobia as part of its political program, and currently has the support of almost a third of voters in opinion polls,” he said, adding that right-wing extremists protest in front of his community's mosque every week .

Study confirms anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany

In June 2023, after years of research, experts presented a comprehensive study titled Anti-Muslim Sentiment – ​​A German Balance Sheet. The German federal government commissioned the Independent Expert Group on Anti-Muslim Sentiment (UEM) to produce the report following a racially motivated attack in the city of Hanau in February 2020, in which a right-wing extremist killed nine people of migrant background.

The study illustrates the scope of anti-Muslim sentiment in German society, and shows how little is known about it. For a long time, for example, hate crimes against Muslims were rarely classified as such.

Furthermore, the report makes clear that “anti-Muslim sentiment is not a marginal phenomenon in society, but is widespread across a large part of the German population, and has remained at a consistently high level for many years.”

But in the wake of the bloody Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel, and especially after protests in German streets – some celebrating the attacks and even denying Israel's right to exist – the study has been little discussed.

Racist fire in Hesse?

In the weeks following the Hamas attack, in addition to the rise in cases of anti-Semitism, there were reports of attacks on mosques, damage to property and threatening messages against Muslims in Germany.

The most dramatic of these cases occurred when a residential building in Wächtersbach in Hesse was set on fire just before Christmas. Graffiti with the words “foreigners out!” were written on the building, leading authorities to question whether the crime was racially motivated – an investigation is ongoing. The place was home to a family from Pakistan that has long resided in the village and whose members, like Malik, are well integrated.

Malik said he is frustrated that there are few statistics and few facts when it comes to anti-Muslim attacks in Germany. New statistics on crimes against Muslims in the final months of 2023 have not yet been published, but officials at information centers say there has been a significant increase.

“There is a sizeable Muslim population who live happily here in Germany and who share the country's social values,” said former journalist Suleyman Bag in Berlin. “We are losing sight of this normality.”

Muslims are often singled out as the problem in German society, but reports from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution show that right-wing and left-wing extremism pose a more serious threat than Islamic extremism.

One form of hatred should not hide the others

Perhaps this also reflects a general insecurity. A society unsettled by the barbarity of terror and war in the Middle East that, at the same time, itself fights against radicalization trends and looks at its minorities more closely.

For Eren Güvercin of the Alhambra Society, a liberal group founded in 2017, focusing on one form of racism, such as anti-Muslim sentiment, is not enough. He says that while this is naturally an “important issue,” we need to avoid “victimhood competition,” in which attention to one form of hate ignores the others.

Güvercin claims that if Muslim society does not openly discuss its own problems, such as anti-Semitic stereotypes and hatred of Jews, it will not be able to move beyond the discrimination it itself suffers.

The same, he says, applies to all of Germany. “Politicians and society need to take more seriously the question of how to tackle the rise in racism.” From this derives the importance of the June 2023 report on anti-Muslim sentiment and the conclusions and suggestions it presents to politicians – who have a greater responsibility to address the issue.