“I lived through the weeks after 9/11. I feel like I’m back in that period,” recalls Suleiman Malik, a Muslim from Thuringia.

From various parts of Germany, Malik learns of new attacks against Muslims: insulting attacks on women who wear headscarves or messages of hate against Muslim communities. “People are missing who will say: you Muslims are part of our society, we will protect you.”

Malik, 35, who was born in Pakistan, is one of the Muslims of the Ahmadiyya community who have been properly integrated. He speaks perfect German, works as a staff consultant and is deputy mayor in Erfurt. For several years now he has been overseeing the construction of a small mosque on the outskirts of the city.

Muslims against anti-Semitism

As Malik tells DW, those who express sympathy and support for the Palestinian civilian population suffering in Gaza are directly linked to anti-Semitism. “But even some Jews do not agree with the actions of the Israeli government.”

Malik also unequivocally condemns Hamas’ terrorist acts against Israel, citing a verse from the Koran that forbids attacks on other people’s religious sites. He also emphasizes that “Muslims have the obligation to protect the lives of Jews”. Anyone who does otherwise has not properly understood the teachings of Islam. That is why society should seek cooperation with Muslims in the fight against anti-Semitism.

Malik also talks about the conditions prevailing in Thuringia, as well as the AfD. “We have a party that according to polls already gathers about 1/3 of the vote and which has turned Islamophobia into a central axis of its program.” Every week, he says, far-right activists demonstrate against the construction of his community’s mosque.

Islamophobia in Germany

In June, a study entitled “Islamophobia – a German account” was presented – the preparation of the study was commissioned by the German government to the Independent Expert Circle on Islamophobia (UEM), following the attack that took place in February 2020 in Hanau, when a right-wing extremist murdered nine people from immigrant families.

The research establishes the extent of German society’s hostility towards Muslims, primarily highlighting how little is known about the phenomenon. However, it becomes clear that “Islamophobia is not a social phenomenon of the fringes, but has spread to a large part of German society and has been at a consistently high level for many years.”

Since October 7, 2023 and the bloody terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, especially after the demonstrations in the streets of Germany where some celebrated the attack, while others questioned Israel’s right to exist, almost no one is mentioned in the above investigation. The attitude of politics has now changed.

Racially motivated arson in Wechtersbach?

In recent weeks there have been reports from many parts of Germany of attacks on mosques, property damage and threatening messages. And the most terrible: before Christmas a fire broke out in a house in Wechtersbach, Hesse.

On several of the walls of the building, the phrase “Foreigners out” was found. The possibility of a racially motivated arson has since been discussed – but investigations are ongoing. In the house lived a family from Pakistan, who have been living in Wechtersbach for a long time and have integrated into society. In other words, it is about people like Malik.

Malik is outraged at how little statistics and other evidence exist about anti-Muslim attacks in Germany. Although there is no data for the last months of 2023, the employees of some counseling centers estimate that there has been a noticeable increase in incidents.

“There are a large number of Muslims who live here in Germany without problems and who share the values ​​of this society,” says Suleiman Bagh, a former journalist in Berlin. “But the prospect of that normality is being lost.” Now the impression is often created that Muslims are Germany’s social problem – even though reports from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution show that incidents of right-wing and left-wing extremism are more serious.

One racism should not crowd out the other

But perhaps a pervasive insecurity is also reflected in all of this. A society that feels insecure in the face of barbaric terrorism and war in the Middle East, and which at the same time is also struggling with radicalizing tendencies, treats its minorities with greater suspicion.

For Eren Giverchin from the liberal Alhambra community, it is not enough to look at just one form of racism, namely Islamophobia. Although this is of course an “important issue”.

However, we must not end up “competing who is more victimized”, where one racism is sidelined by the other. If the Muslim community does not openly discuss the problems that exist within them, the anti-Semitic clichés and the hatred against the Jews, the conditions surrounding its own marginalization are not going to improve either.

This is something that, according to Giverchin, applies to the whole country. “Politics and society need to take more seriously the fact that racism is on the rise.”