A Berlin-based human rights group warned that German schools were witnessing a rise in Islamophobic incidents due to anti-Muslim sentiment increased against the backdrop of events in the Middle East.
The anti-discrimination centre ADAS had been receiving an increasing number of complaints in recent months from students as well as their parents about Islamophobic actions, insults and verbal harassment, director Aliyeh Yegane Arani reported.
More than half of the complaints we have received are about incidents of anti-Muslim racism. Considering that Muslims constitute 6 to 8 percent of the population in Germany, this is a rather high rate.
ADAS provides counselling and support to students, parents, teachers and school personnel who have experienced or witnessed discrimination. Arani stated that the vast majority of complaints related to incidents of racism against black people, as well as hate crime and discrimination against Muslims.
“About 20% of cases are explicitly about anti-Muslim racism. These incidents involve some teachers using Islamophobic expressions, or girls, women being discriminated against because of their headscarves, mobbing against Muslim students.”
She noted that there were other forms of anti-Muslim racism that affected people who were considered Muslims because of their name, appearance or background, but who were not religious at all, perhaps not even Muslims. Such victims accounted for about 40 per cent of the complaints received.
There are many cases that go unreported. Only very few people apply and report such incidents, many of the cases at schools are not reported or addressed.
According to Arani, “anti-Muslim hate propaganda of the far-right groups, racist narratives about immigrants” were among the reasons for the sharp rise in Islamophobia cases in recent years. She also pointed out that since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October, 2023, the number of reported incidents had increased.
“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 the Palestinian keffiyeh scarves in schools.”
Germany, with a population of more than 84 million, has the second largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. According to official figures, over 5 million Muslims live there.
Last year, German authorities recorded at least 686 Islamophobic offences, including verbal and physical harassment of Muslims in the streets, threatening letters sent to Islamic institutions and arson attacks on mosques.
