Islamophobia in Germany – far right views, different target?
JVL Introduction
Why does it seem to be OK in Germany to dislike Muslims? Why does Germany’s version of UK’s dreadful Prevent programme garner little if any opposition of challenge? This author thinks he has some answers, noting the worrying rise of the far right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) and notes that , “As Israeli-German philosopher Moshe Zuckermann has written, Islamophobia is the projection of an unutterable anti-Semitism” and that “The sentiments reflected in Germany’s old anti-Semitism cannot be publicly expressed anymore due to the state’s official embrace of philo-Semitism. That is why they are channelled through Islamophobia. What cannot be done to the Jew anymore, can easily be done to the Muslim.”
Most worrying of all, perhaps, is that these ideas are no longer the preserve of a far-right fringe but are becoming increasingly more mainstream.
In the UK, many would expect better even from this Labour government but, as the Daily Telegraph (!) noted The Muslim Council of Britain is calling for an end to what they consider a ‘shocking’ lack of contact” by Keir Starmer’s Labour Party even in the wake of the Islamophobic riots in this country over the summer.
LL
This article was originally published by al Jazeera on Wed 18 Sep 2024. Read the original here.
What’s behind Germany’s raging Islamophobia?
It is not the first time the country fixates on demonising a racialised group and blaming it for its crises.
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This article is absolutely right in identifying how German racism and islamophobia have in many cases replaced traditional antisemitism, though the latter still flourishes on the far right.
Germany prides itself on how it has dealt with the Holocaust, but this largely manifests itself in support for Israel. Almost any criticism of Israel is considered to be antisemitic. This has given an apparent moral cover for racism and islamophobia, as all Muslims are assumed to be antisemitic by nature. Many German politicians and media commentators use the term ‘imported antisemitism’, as though antisemitism were an alien concept (in Germany of all places!) that has only been brought in from Muslim countries.
It is by no means just the AfD that proudly displays its racist and islamophobic views. Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Greens: Muslims in Germany must “distance themselves from antisemitism in order not to undermine their own entitlement to tolerance.” Opposition (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz, almost certainly Chancellor after next year’s elections, calling for a ban on refugees from Gaza: “We have enough antisemitic young men in the country.”
Earlier this year the revelation that members of the AfD had met to discuss the ‘remigration’ of immigrants to their country of origin led to an outcry and demonstrations. But an attempt by pro-Palestinian demonstrators to join in was violently rejected. In general, pro-Palestinian demonstrations are brutally suppressed by police who can wrap themselves in the cloak of self-righteous ‘protection of Jewish life’ and combatting antisemitism.
Of course, German racism is not confined to Muslims. Last year the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights published its survey of harassment and discrimination of black people in the EU; Germany came top, with 76% of respondents reporting racial discrimination and 45% reporting racial harassment in the last 5 years.