Harun Nasrullah

More than 900 Islamophobic offences were recorded in Germany in 2020, a two per cent increase from the previous year. Last year also saw the highest rates of far-right related crimes in the last four years. More than 23,000 crimes committed by the far-right afflicted people last year, an increase of several hundred from 2019.

Neuer Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ) newspaper published the interior ministry figures following a freedom of information request from the Left party.

In 2019, there were more than 884 recorded incidences of Islamophobic crimes in Germany. The increase in recorded Islamophobic hate crimes in 2020 occurred despite the ongoing pandemic.

In the offences recorded 48 people were injured compared to 34 people injured in 2019 and two deaths.
According to the Ministry of Interior, there were 77 attacks on mosques, including graffiti and other forms of desecration. A member of The Left party in Germany speaking to NOZ called the registered cases of anti-Muslim violence only the “tip of the iceberg,” arguing that most victims do not go to the authorities to report Islamophobic attacks.

A SETA report on Islamophobia in Europe found that widespread Islamophobia in Germany has resulted in the electoral success of the anti-Muslim party the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

“The anti-Islamic AfD receives its intellectual superstructure from right-wing masterminds and publicists, whose main goals are to prevent an alleged Islamisation of German culture and to produce ‘cultural purity,’” the report said.

In the 2013 parliamentary elections, the AfD won just over 800,000 votes and was not represented in Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag. In 2017, however, the party saw a major electoral breakthrough gaining more than 5.3 million votes and becoming the largest opposition party in the parliament.