Over 900 Islamophobic Attacks Recorded in Germany in 2020
According to Neuer Osnabrücker Zeitung, at least 901 Islamophobic attacks were recorded in Germany in 2020, a 2% rise compared to the previous year in which the interior ministry recorded 884 crimes that would be considered Islamophobic.
Despite the coronavirus limiting public life, the number of criminal offenses, including defacing spaces with Nazi symbols, writing threats and ripping women's headscarves off, has risen again.
German Left Party (Die Linke) interior expert Ulla Jelpke described the attacks to the newspaper as “the tip of the iceberg.”
Germany has experienced a rise in racism and anti-Muslim hatred in recent years, fueled by the propaganda of neo-Nazi groups and the far-right opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Germany is home to 81 million people and hosts the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Of the country’s nearly 4.7 million Muslims, at least 3 million are of Turkish descent.
Jelpke, who said the victims of the attacks often do not file complaints out of fear or shyness, said discrimination needs to be battled in an effective manner, the Daily Sabah reported.
The article pointed to a large proportion of the attackers being far-rightists. It noted that 48 people were physically wounded in attacks in 2020, increasing the figure from the year before. Two people lost their lives in Islamaphobic attacks in the country.
An inquiry from Germany's Left Party last year showed that every other day throughout the course of 2019, a mosque, a Muslim institution or a religious representative in Germany was targeted in Islamophobic attacks.
