Elham Asaad Buaras
The Berlin-based rights group ADAS has warned that there has been a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes at German schools due to the far-right’s Islamophobic rhetoric and recent developments in the Middle East.
Students and their parents have been filing increasing complaints to the ADAS anti-discrimination centre regarding Islamophobic acts, insults, and verbal harassment, according to its Director, Aliyeh Yegane Arani.
“More than half of the complaints we have received are about incidents of anti-Muslim racism. Considering that Muslims constitute six to eight per cent of the population in Germany, this is a rather high rate,” she told Anadolu Agency.
Most complaints received by ADAS, which offers counselling and support to students, parents, teachers, and school personnel who have experienced discrimination, are about incidents of racism directed towards Black people as well as anti-Muslim hate crimes and discrimination.
Students perceived to be Muslim are experiencing the impact of Islamophobia, not just Muslim students, according to her.
“About 20 per cent of cases are explicitly about anti-Muslim racism. These incidents involve some teachers using Islamophobic expressions, or girls, and women being discriminated against because of their headscarves, mobbing against Muslim students,” Arani said.
She emphasised that individuals who are thought to be Muslim but are not religious at all, or even not Muslims, are also affected by other types of anti-Muslim racism.
According to Arani, these makeup about 40 per cent of the complaints received.
Estimates from the ADAS suggest that the true number of anti-Muslim incidents at schools may be much higher than the number of students and parents who report them to authorities or anti-discrimination centres.
“There are many cases that go unreported. Only very few people apply for and report such incidents. Many of the cases at schools are not reported or addressed,” Arani said.
Far-right groups and racist individuals have been responsible for the surge in Islamophobic hate propaganda and anti-immigrant rhetoric, leading to an increase in Islamophobic cases in recent years.
“After October 7, we are receiving an increasing number of applications, especially regarding the war in Gaza. For example, some students have reported that they were forced to make statements, to express their positions, or to express what they think about the conflict against their will. There has been a ban on wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves in schools,” she said.
Germany is home to more than five million (six per cent) Muslims, making it the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France.
Far-right and anti-Muslim groups, including the opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD), have fuelled growing racism and xenophobia in the country in recent years through their propaganda.
At least 686 Islamophobic crimes were recorded by German authorities last year, among which were verbal and physical assaults against Muslims on the streets, threatening letters sent to Islamic institutions, and arson attacks targeting mosques.
