ISLAMOPHOBIA in gERMANy NATIONAL REPORT 2022 ZUBAIR AHMAD Source: https://islamophobiareport.com/islamophobiareport-2022.pdf p. 271 In its 2019 representative survey, the data collected by Bertelsmann Stiftung suggested that only about one in three respondents considered Islam to be enriching for society. Every other respondent even perceived Islam as a threat. Although the negative perception of Islam has decreased slightly, the survey suggested that it remains at a relatively high level in the German population as a whole since 2021. Accordingly, half of the German population (52%) considered Islam as threatening. Only 29% of East Germans and 38% of West Germans experienced Islam as enriching for Germany. Consequently, many people today no longer understand Islam as a religion but as an anti-democratic and extremist ideology. According to the report, the reasons for this are primarily media reports that depict Islam and Muslims in almost exclusively negative contexts.14 p. 272 In terms of Islamophobic incidences, the previous years have seen an enormous increase of attacks on Muslims in Germany. Since 2017, Islamophobic crimes have been registered separately by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). The subcategory "Islamophobic" was added to the category "politically motivated crime". In 2017, 1,075 attacks were carried out against Muslims and their institutions. Over 100 attacks were on mosques and 56 on people. In 2018, the number of Islamophobic crimes had somewhat decreased with 910 registered cases, including 48 crimes against mosques. In contrast, significantly more people (at least 74 people) were injured. In 2019, the number of Islamophobic crimes again increased to 950 with 90.1% of criminal offenses committed by right-wing extremists. In 2020, 901 Islamophobic crimes were committed across Germany, 146 of which targeted mosques and 48 of which targeted people.16 Since 2021, the data suggest a decrease of Islamophobic incidents. In 2021, incidents related to Islamophobia decreased by 26%. For 2022, tentative numbers available suggest that 364 Islamophobic incidents have been recorded. Regardless of decreasing numbers, physical and verbal attacks against Muslims remain intense, if not having gained a new intensity. According to the latest Authoritarismus-Studie, anti-democratic attitudes have not been declining but rather shifting while keeping hatred against Muslims, Sinti, and Roma on a consistent high.17 p. 273 Discrimination against pupils with a migrant background can only be proven in very few cases. Nevertheless, there are numerous indications that it is taking place. For example, a 2015 OECD study showed that children from socially disadvantaged or immigrant families have poorer chances of higher education than other children, suggesting that the "link between socio-economic background and education outcomes is relatively strong and youth dropping out early from the education system have poor lifetime job prospects."20 Equally, several studies in the past years have indicated that students with a migrant background must perform better than their fellow students without a migrant experience in order to be recommended for high school.21 p. 275 In 2022, a group of experts working under the Federal Ministry of the Interior on "political Islamism" published its final report. Indicative of the report is the sheer difficulty to define the term in a distinct way and distinguish it from Islam more generally. Albeit the report aims to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate ways to be Muslim and political, it remains unable to deliver this in a consensual way. Furthermore, the entire debate remains theoretical and ahistorical, turning "political Islam(ism)" into a somewhat abstract phenomenon. More importantly, the lack of sociological and political precision in identifying and naming concrete actors as well as issues to be addressed, contributes heavily to racialising Muslim subjects, Islamic practices, and the entirety of the Muslim community as dangerous to the democratic state, its institutions, and civil society in large.29 p. 275 Reporting on immigrants and refugees is often distorted as was proven in a study by the University of Mainz and Stiftung Mercator in 2021. The research team carried out a quantitative analysis of 5,822 media reports in six leading newspapers between 2016 and 2020. According to this study, many media reports emphasise crime (13%) in connection to flight and immigration, but only in 3% of cases in connection to violence against refugees. p. 276 The German media was criticised for the lack of intercultural competence more generally. Rameza Monir said that the "football World Cup leaves a stale aftertaste due to the week-long fueling of orientalist, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism in the reporting."35 p. 276 The question of the headscarf and question of state neutrality have been central to the discourse on Islam and Muslims in Germany. In recent years, Berlin’s neutrality law remained controversial and debated frequently in the senate. The law prohibits the wearing of religious symbols in parts of public service, especially in the police and judiciary, and in the education sector. In doing so, it is the most extensive regulation in this area in Germany while the Federal Labor Court declared a blanket ban to be unconstitutional in 2020. More recently, Lena Kreck, Senator for Justice, Diversity, and Anti-Discrimination in Berlin, declared that she wanted to take sustained action against Islamophobia and "structural discrimination" against Muslims. An important step in this direction, she argued, "is the abolition of the neutrality law."36 p. 277 Common accusations against Muslims were that they were responsible for the "Islamisation of the West/Europe", "they are taking over the government", or that they wanted to "ban Christianity". Furthermore, Muslims are called "extremists", "terrorists", and supporters of "political Islam". Additionally, they were accused of being "paedophiles", "woman abusers", or practicing "taqiya" to cover their lies. Due to the Covid pandemic, Muslims were accused of spreading the pandemic as "super-spreaders".37 p. 277 In October, Hoecke posted on social media that Muslims were waging a "war of displacement" and that, among Muslims, Germans were regarded as living an unworthy life (lebensunwertes Leben).… Especially, debates about so-called political Islam contributed to the rise of Islamophobic sentiments. Here, particularly Mouhanad Khorchide and Ahmad Mansour contributed to the increase of such sentiments by continuously framing political tendencies as threatening, dangerous, and deviant to democratic structures.41 .-. -last modified: 2023-05-25 21:13 CEST (UTC=21:13 -2h)