German Report: Hate Crimes On The Rise By Right-Wing Extremists, Refugees Targeted

A German report on hate crimes released Tuesday by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the country’s domestic intelligence agency, evoked concerns among government officials as it identified a sharp increase in the number of violent acts perpetrated by right-wing extremists, Reuters reports.

With violent incidents rising by 42 percent, the report also made recommendations for strategies to combat “right-wing terrorist structures.”

Other details in the report, which is produced annually, go on to note that recorded attacks by right-wing entities grew from 990 in 2014 to over 1,400 in 2015. Arson attacks against refugee centers rose dramatically from just five in 2014 to 75 over the same span of time.

While attacks were mainly focused on refugees, journalists and politicians have also been targets of extremists. Most of the attacks did not appear to have characteristics that would suggest any greater organized effort, but the arsons and vandalism to refugee centers did allude to calculated and planned efforts.

In light of the German report on hate crimes, the interior ministry released a statement to prompt action against the rising tide of right-wing extremism.

“Current investigations against the suspected development of terrorist groups points to the possible emergence of right-wing terrorist structures in Germany and the need for the government to take rigorous action.”

A Talking Points Memo report connects the rise in right-wing groups in Germany as a reaction to the influx of refugees that the country, as well as other European nations, has given asylum to. The numbers of refugees fleeing wars and instability in Muslim countries have given rise to increased anti-immigrant sentiment in Germany as well as other parts of Europe even emerging as one of the contributing factors to the U.K.’s Brexit referendum.

In January, the Guardian covered a mass riot of right-wingers in the German city of Leipzig that had erupted in response to increased sexual assaults committed by immigrants. Described as a “rampage,” police arrested over 200 people who had joined in violence across the city, some even starting structure fires.

In the same month, in the city of Cologne, right-wingers reportedly used social media to organize attacks against Pakistani, Syrian, and African men.

In the last two years, there have been arsons related to anti-immigrant right-wing groups in Berlin, Hanau, and Hannover. Speigel says that there are up to 120,000 visitors a day on the German anti-Islam website Politically Incorrect, which drives much of the hate speech directed at Muslim refugees.

Other right-wing groups noted as main drivers of anti-immigrant rhetoric are PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West), the Christian Social Union, and the Die Freiheit political party.

In the same report, a poll by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that 56 percent of German citizens considered Islam an “archaic religion, incapable of fitting into modern life.” Others polled think that the religious freedoms of Muslims should be in some way restricted.

The alleged “Islamifcation of Germany,” a rallying cry among far-right groups, is considered to be a true offense against the laws and culture of Germany. Another website, called Nuremburg 2.0, showcases information on allies of the Muslim community in Germany from politicians and judges to journalists. In the minds of Germany’s far-right, Islam is a political doctrine as much as it is a religion, if not more so. This is a sentiment that is echoed among far-right groups across Europe and even in the United States.

According to the Southern Law Poverty Center (SPLC), the U.S. also saw a rise in right wing hate groups in 2015, of which 34 anti-Muslim groups were identified — especially toward the end of 2015 in the aftermath of fundamentalist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.

In Germany, hate crimes are not covered under the penal code, but there is an initiative, spurred by the anti-racism commission of the Council of Europe, to urge Germany to act with more haste in appropriating racist motivations to aggravating factors for crimes.

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