The number of politically motivated crimes against religious communities in Germany will more than double in 2023 compared to the previous year.
According to annual statistics on politically motivated crimes presented on May 21 by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Criminal Investigation Department (BKA), the responsible state investigative agencies registered a total of 7,029 crimes against religious communities across the country last year. Compared to 2022 (3,255), this represents an increase of 116 percent. The main reason for this is a significant increase in the number of crimes against members and representatives of individual religious communities, which rose from 2,804 to 6,122.
Crimes in Germany
Investigative authorities also recorded an increase in crimes against mosques and synagogues. The number of politically motivated crimes against mosques increased from 62 to 70 and against synagogues from 28 to 42. Attacks on mosques mainly involved damage to property and incitement to hatred, while attacks on synagogues mainly involved damage to property and threats of crimes. as propaganda crimes. In both cases, the majority of crimes were attributed to ‘rightism’, with an increasing trend compared to the previous year. However, the number of crimes against churches fell by more than 20 percent to 92 during the reporting period (this was 118 in 2022).
Of the 6,122 crimes against representatives of religions, state investigative agencies recorded 3,555 cases of incitement to hatred, 618 propaganda crimes, 503 insults, 444 damage to property and 239 violent crimes. Most of these were crimes related to bodily harm (185). In this area too, most crimes were attributed to the ‘right-wing’ phenomenon. Of the crimes against religious representatives, almost 75 percent were attributed to the subtheme ‘anti-Semitism’ and just under 22 percent to the subtheme ‘Islamophobia’.
The number of politically motivated crimes amounted to 60,028 last year, almost two percent more than in 2022 (58,916).
– We are seeing a new high level of crimes against our open and liberal society. The number of crimes committed by right-wing extremists continues to rise rapidly. And since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel and the war in the Gaza Strip, the number of anti-Semitic crimes has increased dramatically, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) explained during the presentation of the statistics.
According to statistics, the number of anti-Semitic crimes has almost doubled to 5,164 in 2023 (in 2022 it was 2,641). According to BKA head Holger Münch, 53 percent of the registered crimes were committed after Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel in early October.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
