Germany: Over 950 attacks on Muslims, mosques in 2017 – Interior Ministry

There were 950 attacks reportedly on Muslims and mosques in Germany in 2017, according to new government figures.
At least 33 Muslims were injured in the attacks, which included assaults against Muslim women wearing headscarves and attacks against mosques and other Muslim institutions, the Interior Ministry said in its reply to a parliamentary question.
Anti-Muslim crimes, including physical assault, threatening letters, hate speech and spraying Nazi-themed graffiti on mosques, were rife in Germany in 2017.
The ministry recorded at least 60 attacks last year that targeted mosques and other institutions of the Muslim community.
In most of the incidents, the perpetrators were far-right extremists, according to the ministry.
The Left Party’s expert for internal affairs, Ulla Jelpke, welcomed the recent reduction in the anti-Muslim crime rate, but said there was no reason to be complacent. She also warned that “Islam haters” had made it into the German parliament, in a reference to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which currently holds 92 seats in the 709-seat assembly.
“The haters of Islam have now made the jump from the streets into the Bundestag and contribute to poisoning the social climate with regard to Muslim life in Germany from the parliamentary tribune,” she said.
Last January, police began registering Islamophobic crimes under a special category, after calls by the country’s Muslim community to take more serious measures against the growing number of anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Germany, a country of 81.8 million people, has the second largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France.
Among the country’s nearly 4.7 million Muslims, 3 million are of Turkish origin. Many of them are second or third-generations of Turkish families who migrated to Germany in the 1960s and are well-integrated.
The EU’s largest economy has witnessed growing Islamophobia and hatred of migrants in recent years triggered by propaganda from far-right and populist parties, which have exploited fears over the refugee crisis and terrorism.
Meanwhile in Spain, More than 500 Islamophobic incidents were recorded in Spain last year, including against women and children and several mosques, according to a civil society group.
Details of the incidents were documented in the report “Islamophobia in Spain 2017” released Friday by the Citizens’ Platform Against Islamophobia (Plataforma Ciudadana Against Islamophobia- PCI), with two-thirds – about 386 – on the Internet, according to the annual report on Islamophobia presented Friday.
According to the report, a rising trend of prejudice against Islam was noted among various political views in Spain. Street, media and internet campaigns by far-right groups were also recorded, said the report.
The incidents include hostile messages towards the Muslim community by political leaders, attacks on mosques, media campaigns against the opening of new religious centres, as well as aggression and discrimination against Muslim women and the proliferation of hate and fake news with xenophobic messages on social networks.
Out of the 546 Islamophobic incidents, 386 were media and internet-based while 48 percent comprised verbal attacks against Islam and Muslims.
Twenty-one percent of the incidents were against women, 8 percent targeted men, 4 percent were directed against children and 7 percent targeted mosques. There were also attacks against Muslim communities’ businesses and associations.
Of all the Islamophobic incidents documented by PCI in 2017, 51 percent occurred in the northeastern Catalonia region, followed by Andalusia with 22 percent and Valencia with 20 percent.
The report said 7% of incidents were against mosques and religious centres.
Of the regions in Spain, Catalonia had the highest number of incidents of Islamophobia – above all following the jihadist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils – followed by Andalusia and the Valencian Community.
The Plataforma Ciudadana is a national independent association founded in 2011 by the Islamic Cultural Centre of Valencia, the Movement Against Intolerance, and the Junta Islamica, a member of the Council of Victims of Hate Crimes and Discrimination, a pioneering organisation and point of reference in Europe. (ANSAmed).

 

Leave a Reply