Despite the number of high profile attacks on Germans by members of Islamic radical groups, actual attacks on Muslims and mosques have been declining across Germany.
The German Federal government announced Thursday that the number of cases of attacks on Muslims and mosques by Germans has steadily decreased this year.
According to the statistics from the Interior Ministry the number of so called “Islamophobic attacks” has gone down across the entire country in the first six months of 2016, reports Die Welt. The announcement comes after a huge rise in attacks by radical Islamic terrorists and their sympathisers in Bavaria and elsewhere in the last month.
Police and domestic security agencies say that in the last six months there have only been 29 cases of attacks on Muslims or mosques. The number is far lower than the second half of 2015 which saw 44 cases. The report was commissioned at the request of the Left Party, who are known for their pro-mass migration views.
Despite the low number of actual attacks on Muslims or mosques, the instances of protests against Islamisation remain relatively high. The Interior Ministry said that the number of protests organised by the anti-Islamisation group PEGIDA were still attracting large numbers of demonstrators, primarily in the movement’s home city of Dresden. The ministry said similar protests organised by the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) were also turning out crowds against Islamisation.
The government totalled around 129 protests against Islamisation in the first six months of 2016, which is a slight increase from the last six months of 2015 in which there were 113 recorded demonstrations.
The figures also show that most “Islamophobic” crime was committed in the latter half of 2015 when the migrant crisis numbers were the highest. Left politician Ulla Jelpke claimed that: “Right-wing extremists in the population try to mobilise existing fears and sweepingly represent all Muslims as enemies.”
Ms. Jelpke has previously condemned attempts by the German Federal government to curb the mass migration of men and women from the Middle East and North Africa, and has called for the domestic security forces to spy on the hipster-right anti-mass migration Identitarian youth movement. She had asked Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the domestic intelligence services, if the agency could spy on the youth movement. Mr. Maassen replied that the group may have reached a “threshold” for observation due to their recent protests.
While crime against Muslims and mosques is on a downward trend, the trend of Muslim attacks on Germans and other European nations is certainly on the rise. In the past month attacks have occurred in several cities in Bavaria, as well as the French cities of Normandy and Nice by radical Islamic terrorists. Many officials, including European police agency Europol, believe the trend is likely to continue.