30- July-2023
Muslims in Germany often face rampant discrimination, hatred and sometimes violence in their daily lives, according to a new report commissioned by the interior ministry in Berlin , while Sweden has become the epicenter of Islamophobia in Europe after a series of burnings of the Holy Quran.
The Independent Group of Experts on Muslim Hostility (UEM) analysed scientific studies, police crime statistics and documentation of anti-Muslim incidents by anti-discrimination agencies, counselling centres and nongovernmental organisations.
The comprehensive 400-page report published by the 12-member independent panel took three years to complete. The findings were presented at the interior ministry on Thursday.
At least one-third of Muslims in Germany have experienced hostility due to their religion, the UEM said. The experts, however, asserted that the real numbers are likely higher since only 10 percent of Muslims appear to report hostility and hate crimes against them.
“Muslim life belongs to Germany as a matter of course,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement
Many of the 5.5 million Muslims in Germany experience exclusion and discrimination in everyday life – up to and including hatred and violence,” she said upon receiving the report. “It is very important to make this visible and to raise awareness of resentment that is still widespread,” she added.
German Muslims are not only exposed to blunt racism but also to daily stereotyping from kindergarten to old age, the experts said.
Even German-born Muslims were widely seen as “foreign” and Islam was perceived as a “backward religion”; women wearing traditional headscarves faced “particularly dramatic forms of hostility”, the report said
“Many of the 5.5 million Muslims in Germany experience exclusion and discrimination in everyday life – up to and including hatred and violence,” she said upon receiving the report. “It is very important to make this visible and to raise awareness of resentment that is still widespread,” she added
German Muslims are not only exposed to blunt racism but also to daily stereotyping from kindergarten to old age, the experts said.
Even German-born Muslims were widely seen as “foreign” and Islam was perceived as a “backward religion”; women wearing traditional headscarves faced “particularly dramatic forms of hostility”, the report said.
In an analysis of popular culture, the report found that nearly 90 percent of films the panel watched presented a negative view of Muslims, often associating them with “terror attacks, wars and oppression of women”.
Former Interior Minister Horst Seehofer launched the commission in 2020 after a far-right German killed 10 people and wounded five others in an anti-Muslim shooting spree in the central city of Hanau
The attack shocked the country and prompted rights groups to sound the alarm about Islamophobic sentiment in Germany.
‘Structural discrimination’
Saba-Nur Cheema, one of the 12 experts on the panel said the report also revealed details about prejudice towards Muslims that she called “anonymous and subtle”.
“[According to the report] almost half of the population in Germany believes Islam does not belong to Germany … or one-third of the population felt alien [in Germany] …. because of the Muslims living here,” she told Al Jazeera
