Attempted arson on a mosque in Bochum that had been marked with a swastika, the door of a Muslim family in Saxony shot at by a right-wing extremist neighbor, a woman pushed onto train tracks in Berlin after being asked if she belonged to Hamas.

These are some of the record 1,926 anti-Muslim incidents registered in Germany last year (2023) by the Competence Network Islam- and Muslim-phobia (CLAIM), a network of NGOs monitoring Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred. That marked a 114% rise on 2023, with incidents shooting up in particular after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel from Gaza.

Yet authorities are paying insufficient attention to this phenomenon, and even denying its existence, as mainstream parties take over policies of far-rht, anti-Islam parties that have surged in popularity, Rima Hanano told a Berlin news conference on June 24, to present the report.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which states in its program that Islam does not belong to Germany, has jumped to second place in polls over the past year, prompting mainstream parties to talk tougher on migration.

“The streets, buses or mosques are no longer safe places for people who are Muslim or perceived as such,” said Hanano. “Anti-Muslim racism was never as socially acceptable as today and it comes from the middle of society.”

The incidents recorded, likely only a fraction of the total given a fear of coming forward and a lack of monitoring institutions, included 90 attacks on Islamic religious sites, cemeteries and other institutions, CLAIM wrote.

Most attacks on individuals consisted of verbal abuse and were aimed at women. There were also four attempted murders.

The Muslim population in Germany has been growing rapidly, especially since an influx of migrants in 2015-16, tallying 5.5 million in total or 6.6% of the overall population.

Islamophobic Incidents Soar

The CLAIM report tallies with a 140% increase in Islamophobic crimes last year recorded by the interior ministry, and a survey showing one in two Germans hold Islamophobic views.

Antisemitism also rose following Israel’s devastating military incursion into the Gaza Strip after the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas-led Palestinian Islamist militants, according to the German government and NGOs.

In a country that is particularly sensitive about antisemitism due its responsibility for the Holocaust, German authorities have been more vocal denouncing that problem than anti-Muslim incidents.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck, in an emotive video, accused some Muslim community groups in Germany of being “too hesitant” in distancing themselves from Hamas or anti-Jewish hatred.

The government last year published its first ever independent report on Islamophobia by experts it commissioned, with a series of recommendations for tackling discrimination.

Family Minister Lisa Paus has said the recent rise in both anti-Muslim and antisemitic incidents was “dramatic” and the government was trying to do prevention work from an early age by funding civil society projects working on the issue.

CLAIM’s Hanano said, however, that insufficient action had been taken so far.

“Despite the fact … that we have been warning about this situation for years, it is still barely acknowledged,” she said. “What we really need is the political will to truly fight anti-Muslim racism.”

The Competence Network Islam- and Muslim-phobia (CLAIM) was founded as a network in Germany in October 2017. It aims to bundle and improve expertise on the topic of Islam- and Muslim-phobia/anti-Muslim racism and make it available to the fields of education, politics, administration, and civil society. Its goal is to reduce anti-Muslim racism in society.

Download CLAIM Report HERE (in German).

Source: Reuters

Reported discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians reached a record high in the U.S. in 2023, driven by rising Islamophobia and bias as the Israel-Gaza war raged late in the year, data from an advocacy group showed on Tuesday.

Complaints totaled 8,061 in 2023, a 56% rise from the year before and the highest since the Council on American-Islamic Relations began records nearly 30 years ago. About 3,600 of those incidents occurred from October to December, CAIR said.

Human rights advocates have similarly reported a global rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the latest eruption of conflict in the Middle East.

U.S. incidents have included the fatal October stabbing of 6-year-old Palestinian American Wadea Al-Fayoume in Illinois, the November shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Vermont and the February stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas.

CAIR’s report said 2023 saw a “resurgence of anti-Muslim hate” after the first ever recorded annual drop in complaints in 2022. In the first nine months of 2023, such incidents averaged around 500 a month before jumping to nearly 1,200 a month in the last quarter.

“The primary force behind this wave of heightened Islamophobia was the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine in October 2023,” the report said.

The most numerous complaints in 2023 were in the categories of immigration and asylum, employment discrimination, hate crimes and education discrimination, CAIR said.

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent military assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed over 32,000 people, according to the local health ministry, displaced nearly all its 2.3 million population, put Gaza on the brink of starvation and led to genocide allegations.

CAIR said it compiled the numbers by reviewing public statements and videos as well as reports from public calls, emails and an online complaint system. It contacted people whose incidents were reported in the media.

Source: Reuters