Media Analysis: Uncovering Anti-Muslim Hate in Germany

James Jackson

Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

The far-right achieved record results in recent east German state elections. But though anti-Muslim racism was one of the Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s key talking points, this was scarcely mentioned in press coverage.  

That is because, though there are over 5.5 million Muslims in Germany, half of whom are German citizens and some whose families came to the country generations ago, they are rarely represented in the country’s media as ordinary citizens. 
 

Germany is one of the countries in which it is hardest to be Muslim in Europe, and the media plays a role in this. Unlike other countries where the left may be more sympathetic to Muslims, in Germany the special relationship to Israel means that may left-leaning journalists and publications associate Islam with antisemitism. A homogenous media environment means that there are few places where Muslims can themselves speak without being under suspicion. 

A study on “Islam in the EU” found that Germany was the second worst in Europe for anti-Muslim racism, with only Austria scoring worse. 68 percent of Muslims in Germany have experienced discrimination in the last five years. (It was 71 percent in Austria). The study found a sharp rise across Europe since 2022. 

Experts agree that the media plays an important role in the “negative perception that exists and is widespread in Germany” of Muslims and particularly of Muslim women and religious life, which many people only come into contact with through the media. 

57% of print and even 89% of TV reports about Islam and Muslims deal with negative topics, found the “anti-Muslim hatred” report by an independent commission of experts based on a representative study of 20,000 media articles related to Islam published earlier this year. 

The report found that the media “talks far more about Muslims than with them.” Muslims are hardly ever quoted and are “highly objectified”, with homogenous newsrooms playing a role in this too. Not a single one of Germany’s 126 editors in chief have any non-European ancestry. 

In the ARD public television programs with a connection to Islam, almost 86% deal with terrorism, war and internal security, and in entertainment programs related to Islam, half deal with radicalisation and another third are about the oppression of women. 

Expert Mathias Rohe also puts blame on a highly critical “certain set of supposed experts who are repeatedly questioned because they provide striking quotes, possibly seemingly authentic” because of their Muslim backgrounds. 

Of course, terrorism may be a legitimate focus, as with the two cases of Islamic extremists attacking and killing bystanders in Mannheim and Solingen earlier this year. However, the difference in urgency in which the media portrayed a right-wing massacre of mostly Muslims in Hanau and the killings committed by Muslims is quite apparent. 

Der Spiegel is one of Germany’s most respected media brands, but in particularly in the 2000s and 2010s presented extraordinarily negative images of Islam, with inflammatory titles like “Mekka Germany: the silent Islamisation” pictured with an Islamic crescent moon and star over the iconic Brandenburg Gate or “Allah’s bloody land: Islam and the Middle East” alongside images of extremist Islamic groups, language and images that may be associated with far-right campaigning in other countries. 

A 2009 study of Spiegel and top-selling newspaper Bild found that three quarters of the times Islam appeared it was in a negative context. 

One sign of progress is analysis by the national racism monitor found that reports of anti-Muslim racism rose significantly in frequency in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper after 2010 and is now third most common form of racism referred to in the quality daily. 

Anti-Arab sentiment? 

Though Islam itself is no longer frequently described in the orientalising and threatening ways of the 2000s, anti-Arab sentiment has had a golden year in Germany. Anti-Muslim racism is sometimes presented as a way of defending against antisemitism, notably in a recent speech by the AfD’s Beatrix von Storch, who blamed a rise in antisemitism on Muslim migration to Europe in a speech about a new law.  

Since the Israel-Gaza conflict reignited violently on October 7th, German Media journalist Fabian Goldmann writes it “the spark that exploded the toxic mixture in German editorial offices” on his Schantal and Scharia blog about anti-Muslim hate, which blames “deep-seated racist stereotypes about Islamic barbarism and Western civilization.” 

Germany’s special relationship with Israel (sometimes called “Staatsräson” or reason of state) due to its responsibility for the Holocaust has led in some cases to a serious aversion to Palestinian cultural symbols. 

Multiple newspapers, including Welt and the Jüdische Allgemeiner have had headlines that “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza”, and communications scientist Kai Hafez has criticised German media for “tending to be more on the Israeli side” whenever “Israel is in a conflict situation.” 

Alongside a rise in antisemitism, including classical antisemitic incidents, German media has problematised cultural symbols of Arab self-expression, none more so than the keffiyeh, a scarf popularised by Yasser Arafa as a symbol of the Palestinian nation. 

The Far-right 

International observers may ask whether and how this reporting on Muslims relates to the rise of the far-right in Germany? 

75% of voters in Thuringia, the eastern state won by the far-right Alternative for Germany party, said they were “worried that the influence of Islam in Germany is becoming too strong”. Less than half a percent of Thuringia’s two million inhabitants is Muslim, yet they were one of the biggest worries, after being dragged into war with Russia and criminality, itself often associated with Muslim migrants. 

One particularly egregious example of this was when right-wing journalist Beatrice Achterberg of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung was invited onto the Press Club chat show in April, she told viewers “the connection between particular countries of origin and an increased readiness of violence is obvious. The migrants suspected of crime are often young men from Muslim-influenced countries.” This was then chosen as a pull quote for social media cards advertising the episode. 

Far-right publications such as Nius and Junge Freiheit frequently report on Muslim radicals, with the latter calling the Being Muslim in the EU study on anti-Muslim racism “hardly to be taken seriously.” 

But until the German media take anti-Muslim racism as seriously as other forms of racism, things are unlikely to improve for Germany's Muslims or for other citizens who have a right to fair and unbiased information.

Disclaimer:  

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of GTTO.