Germany records 120 hate crimes against Muslims in three months

Germany has reported 120 anti-Muslim crimes in the third quarter of 2022, leaving ten people injured and several mosques damaged.  

According to the government's response to a question from the left-wing party at the German federal parliament (Bundestag), which was published on Thursday, the number of offences in the first quarter was 83 and 69 in the second quarter respectively.

According to the federal government, “no suspect” has been arrested in connection with Islamophobic attacks in the third quarter. The Prosecutor General at the Federal Supreme Court of Justice also “has not initiated or begun any preliminary proceedings (...).”

Eleven such attacks were targeted against mosques. Bodily injury, insult, incitement to hatred, vandalism or the use of prohibited symbols were the other forms of crimes against Muslims.

READ MORE: Anti-Muslim sentiments prevalent in Germany – study

Becoming a norm

In the past decade or so, anti-Muslim violence in Germany became a normalised reality as what used to be seen as far-right fringe elements have now achieved a political representation with several neo-Nazis winning elections and entering the German parliament.

For example, in the 2013 parliamentary elections, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had only garnered over 800,000 votes and did not get into Germany's federal parliament in the Bundestag.

Fast forward four years, the party made a major breakthrough – gaining more than 5.3 million votes as it ended up being the largest opposition party in parliament.

As the vilification of minorities was enabled by far-right politicians it resulted in the rise of hate crimes against Muslims.

The Hanau terror attack was one of the ugly manifestations of such ugly posturing.

In February 2020, a far-right terrorist wreaked havoc on two locations in Hanau – killing nine people, including four Germans of Turkish origin.

The  43-year-old attacker, Tobias Rathjen, later took his own life, as well as his mother's.

READ MORE: German far right groups use domestic crises to spark anti-Muslim attacks