As Muslim immigration increases across Germany, the country has seen a growing rise in antisemitism, data published by the German Allensbach Institute suggests.
Representative research conducted by the institute found that Muslims are far more likely to agree with antisemitic stereotypes than society in general, and more right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) voters have similar views than supporters of other parties.
The data, reported on by Germany’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, found that 22 percent of German society as a whole agrees with antisemitic statements compared to 46 percent of the Muslim community.
In the poll, 34 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that Jews “use Holocaust victim status” for their own benefit, while 54 percent of Muslims agree. Twenty-three percent of German society believed Jews have too much power in the business and financial world, while 54 percent of Muslims agreed with the statement.
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It is also telling that 27 percent of the total society say that Jews are richer than the average German, in contrast with 47 percent of Muslims agreeing with this. German statistics themselves disprove this myth, the study states.
Remko Leemhuis, head of the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), said the results make it clear that antisemitism is not just on the political periphery, nor is antisemitism only a problem for the Muslim community, but if they want to successfully fight antisemitism, they must not turn a blind eye to this phenomenon either.
There is also a strong contrast between the question of judging Israel. While 54 percent of the total German society has a good or very good opinion of the Jewish state, only 19 percent of Muslims have a positive view of it, while one-third has a distinctly negative one.
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On behalf of the AJC, the Allensbach Institute also examined the position of supporters of each party. A typical figure from the results is that 48 percent of AfD supporters agreed with the aforementioned Holocaust victim statement, compared to 24 percent of Greens supporters. The former are therefore above average and the latter are below average.
It is also interesting to note that 91 percent of the general public agreed that it is important to remember the Holocaust. 14 percent of young people, 24 percent of AfD supporters and 21 percent of Muslims said it was not as important.
The representative poll was conducted between Dec. 22, 2021, and Jan. 18, 2022, with 1,586 German-speaking adults, 561 of whom were Muslims. The Allensbach Institute is a private polling institute founded in 1947.
In February of this year, Amnesty International issued a large report labeling Israel as an apartheid state, which the Israeli government in turn said was antisemitic. Amnesty alleged there had been systematic discrimination against Israeli Arabs, including restrictions on access to citizenship, previous forced relocations, expropriation of Palestinian land and property, blockade of the Gaza Strip, occupation of the West Bank and establishment of settlements.
