Those who wear headscarves in Germany are increasingly at risk of being attacked. Mosques are defaced with pig blood or feces, schoolgirls have their headscarves torn off at bus stops, and men with dark beards are threatened with imminent slaughter in Germany.
Last year, 1,926 anti-Muslim attacks and threats were reported in Germany, along with four attempted murders, which amounts to more than five attacks per day and a 140 percent increase. The rise in reported attacks is alarming, targeting not only individuals but also mosques and restaurants. Muslim-marked places have long become danger zones.
Reports come from counseling centers in almost all federal states, statistics on politically motivated crime from the Federal Criminal Police Office, and media reports. One result is that the escalation of the conflict in Israel and Gaza and its consequences have terrified not only Jews but also Muslims in Germany—and people perceived to be Muslims. The largest victim group is women.
Sometimes, it is just a name that triggers discrimination; in other cases, skin color or clothing is assumed to indicate political and religious attitudes. Documented incidents include 178 bodily injuries, four attempted murders, 93 property damage cases, five arsons, and six other violent crimes, as well as theft or trespassing. And this is just a snippet of reality—the dark figure of anti-Muslim attacks is much higher. Many affected people have lost faith in institutions due to the political debate in Germany and do not report attacks to the police. Mandatory training in administration and security authorities is needed to recognize anti-Muslim attacks as such.
The reported figures are not representative, but the trend shows how much the situation, especially for Muslims, has worsened. Sixty-two percent of the registered victims in 2023 were women. Often, children were also attacked or humiliated by adults, frequently in schools. After October 7 and the Hamas terror attack in Israel, the threshold for such acts in Germany lowered further. For instance, in November 2023, a student at a bus stop in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia, was called a bomb-maker by an unknown man. In Hamburg, an unknown person hit a 14-year-old in the face, apparently because of her headscarf. In November 2023 in Berlin, a young Roma woman wearing a Palestinian scarf was first mocked as a Hamas member by drunk men and then pushed onto train tracks. She narrowly escaped death. In Magdeburg, Muslim graves were defaced with swastikas. As early as February 2023, a woman in Saxony tore off a student’s headscarf and pushed her to the ground. In Hamburg, a right-wing extremist shot through the front door of his Pakistani neighbors in May. One of his targets was a pregnant woman.
Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) called the increase in anti-Muslim attacks dramatic. “To curb racism in our society, prevention work from an early age—especially among children and young people—is essential,” she said on Monday. However, the Democracy Promotion Act, which aims to provide a more reliable financial basis for counseling centers for victims of racist violence and discrimination, is stalled in the Bundestag. Additionally, online hate against Muslims is gaining traction. An analysis of the youth-oriented internet platform TikTok found that 57 percent of comments were driven by anger. The emotional tone was “negative” when reporting on Muslims.
Parallel to this, the situation of Jews in Germany is marked by fear and attacks. They are beaten, threatened with death, and insulted. This is the reality for Jews in Germany, as illustrated by the Research and Information Center on Anti-Semitism (Rias). Its federal association reported nearly 4,800 anti-Semitic incidents last year, 80 percent more than in 2022, almost twice as many.
According to the Rias report, since October 7, the day of the Hamas terror attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s heavy military strikes on Gaza, the number of such and similar incidents has skyrocketed. Almost two-thirds of the 4,800 recorded incidents last year occurred between October 7 and the end of the year.
Experts from academia, non-governmental organizations, and security authorities had already warned immediately after the conflict that the escalation in the Middle East would also lead to an escalation in Germany. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution noted in its 2023 annual report that anti-Semitism had become more widespread, particularly since the fall. The Federal Criminal Police Office has also observed a sharp rise in anti-Semitic offenses since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The Hamas terror attack on Israel marked a turning point for Jews worldwide, said the executive board of the RIAS Federal Association when presenting the report. “An open, self-evident, and especially carefree Jewish life has become even less possible in Germany since October 7.”
The Federal Government’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner, Felix Klein, described the report’s figures as catastrophic. “Jewish life is under greater threat than ever since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany.” RIAS, a civil society organization, evaluated all reports that were either directly submitted to the federal association or the twelve regional reporting offices for the report. Among the recorded incidents were seven cases of extreme violence—such as the attempted arson attack in Berlin, severe bodily injuries—and 121 other physical assaults.
Additionally, there were 329 cases of property damage, including anti-Semitic graffiti and stickers. RIAS counted 183 threats, encompassing all other types of anti-Semitic expressions, such as insults or hate postings, but also non-criminal attacks that do not appear in the BKA statistics. These also include gatherings where Israel’s right to exist is denied, where claims are made that Israel is committing a “Holocaust” in Gaza, and where participants chant things like “Child murderer Israel,” referencing the ancient anti-Semitic blood libel myth. More than 800 such gatherings are included in the anti-Semitism report, nearly half of which took place after October 7. A common pattern is that Jews in Germany are held responsible for the actions and especially the warfare of the Israeli government.
However, anti-Semitic outbursts occur not only at pro-Palestinian demonstrations or other solidarity rallies. RIAS continues to monitor the conspiracy-ideological “Querdenker” scene, which perpetuates anti-Semitic narratives, such as the alleged Jewish puppet masters behind a supposed world conspiracy. Not all incidents can be clearly attributed to a particular ideological background, whether right-wing, left-wing, “Querdenker,” or anti-Israeli milieu. In almost two-thirds of the incidents, the perpetrators’ motivations remained unclear.
Members of the Bundestag from the SPD, CDU, CSU, Greens, FDP, and the Left Party joined RIAS in a joint statement: “We condemn any hostility against Jews and are committed to a self-evident, visible, and secure Jewish life in Germany.” The fight against anti-Semitism is “a shared obligation for all democratic factions in the Bundestag.” Benjamin Steinitz of RIAS hopes so. The significant increase in anti-Semitic incidents, he said, should serve as a “wake-up call” for the state.
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