The debates about hostility toward Muslims in Europe are currently taking on increasingly grotesque features. In most Western European countries, Muslims are the largest minority. But the fundamental question also arises as to who is meant by “Muslim”. Claiming to know who is a Muslim is akin to claiming to know all vegans.
A German group of experts, which met after the deadly attacks in the German city of Hanau, published their report for the German government a few weeks ago. The publication underlines where the problems of an appropriate analysis lie and how permeable advice to politics and society can be works with different terms. The text speaks of “Muslim hostility”, “Islamophobia” and “anti-Muslim racism”. Uneducated, uncivilized, threatening, the attribution of sweeping judgments about Muslims can be justified in terms of colonial history, at least not individual dislike. And it constructs the contrast between being German and being Muslim, the insinuation of foreignness in one’s own country.
The term “anti-Muslim racism” has been used more and more frequently by Islamist and radical forces, especially in recent months, to exploit or silence critics of legalistic Islamism, such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Milli Görüs. Accusations of racism can always be successfully distracted from anti-democratic activities and cement enemy images, Islamist social media accounts are good at it. The German study describes the problem and cites the handling of Salman Rushdie and Erdogan’s call for a boycott against France after the assassination of Samuel Paty as examples of instrumentalization. But the role played by some Islamic associations in the stylization of an alleged Islamo-Western culture war in the name of religion is not a brilliant one either.
Using the term in reverse does not change the findings of the report. The data comes from studies, police crime statistics, documentation from anti-discrimination agencies, and they show very clearly how every second German consciously or unconsciously tends to make anti-Muslim statements, from the attribution of a lack of integration ability to an affinity for violence, from the insinuation of strangeness to criticism the backwardness of religion.
In 2017, 41 percent of those surveyed in the Religionsmonitor der Bertelsmann Stiftung stated that they generally “not at all” or “little” trust Muslims. To the statement “I would have nothing against a Muslim mayor in my community”, 22 percent chose the strongest form of disagreement in 2021, “I completely disagree”. On the other hand, for years, a solid fifty percent have identified themselves with the assessment “Because of the many Muslims, I sometimes feel like a stranger in my own country”. Muslim piety, on the other hand, is repeatedly confused with fundamentalism in Germany, and young Muslims with higher degrees lament a particularly large number of experiences with exclusion.
The behavior of Germans towards their Muslim neighbors has changed little over the years, despite Solingen, 9/11, the establishment of the German Islam Conference, NSU and IS terror. Rarely have views other than the eternal images of violent, misogynist, fanatical Islam prevailed, and Muslims are never themselves identified as victims of violence. The Alliance Against Muslim Hostility, funded by the German Ministry for Family Affairs, recorded 898 anti-Muslim incidents last year, including a lot of racism against women, 71 physical injuries, 44 damage to property, three arson attacks, and the attacks on young people and children are increasing every year. Because rarely anyone reports, the actual numbers are probably significantly higher than in the statistics.
What possibilities are there for politicians, but also for society in Europe, to effectively combat everyday discrimination with violence against Muslims? The study commissioned by the German group of experts describes that Muslim life appears in German media above all when men are aggressive and women are disciplined. This one-sided focus can be found particularly strongly on German television, very often in the news there. Terrorist attacks, radicalization and war are the focus of television films, and school textbooks also show Islam primarily in the context of conflicts. A message with negative connotations is at the core of media events, and Islamist radicalization and its structures must be discussed. However, a serious discussion about the idea of an unbiased view is only possible if the cliché is not constantly reproduced. The more legitimized the prejudices, the more likely it is that Muslim applicants will be disadvantaged when it comes to choosing a career or education: Tests by young people with Arabic names are statistically rated more negatively than their capabilities would suggest. The German experts from different fields of science are calling for a commissioner to combat anti-Muslim hostility, a council of experts, complaints and documentation offices and advice centres. It’s about advanced training for all state institutions, including media houses and daycare centers, a strategy for developing equal participation, very fundamentally: the protection of Muslims in public space.
It is obvious that these evaluations raise many new questions in everyday life. The teacher who, after years of experience, critically asks their Muslim pupils about the freedom their parents give them, will not want to be accused of anti-Muslim racism. One should discuss the role of religion in a society that conducts its debates about faith primarily through headscarves. The next expert inventory is planned in two years.
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