'Brutal and inhuman:' Islamophobia on the rise in Germany, groups say
Cases of prejudice and violence against Muslims in Germany are rising, according to an alliance of German organizations, amid warnings that the real number could be far higher due to mistrust in governmental institutions.
In its annual report, released on Tuesday, the CLAIM coalition recorded 3,080 cases of anti-Muslim incidents in 2024, up from 1,926 in the previous year.
The figures are not directly comparable, as the number of advisory centres rose from 17 to 26 over the course of the year.
Around 70% of the people affected involved Muslim women, the group said.
Muslim adults and children in Germany are demonized as anti-Semites, terrorists and knife-wielding criminals, reflecting portrayals of the community in social media, political debates and wider society, the report said.
Verbal and physical attacks have increased, especially after the terrorist attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, and in connection with suspected Islamist-motivated terrorist attacks in Germany over the past year.
CLAIM official Güzin Ceyha said some of the attacks on Muslim residents of Germany were "very brutal and inhuman."
A Palestinian family was confronted with the slogan "Dirty Arabs, get out of Europe," Ceyha said. Another family had a pig's head placed in front of their door.
The report said that "a high level of mistrust towards state and civil society institutions" has become clear in Germany's Muslim communities in the past year, with a climate of fear prevailing.
Victims of what the organizations called "anti-Muslim racism" are believed to only rarely seek state support or justice.
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