Four years have passed since a far-right extremist in Hanau, Germany, massacred nine people, including four young individuals from the country’s minority Turkish community.
The individuals who lost their lives in this fatal attack include Gokhan Gultekin, Sedat Gurbuz, Said Nesar Hashemi, Mercedes Kierpacz, Hamza Kurtovic, Vili Viorel Paun, Fatih Saracoglu, Ferhat Unvar, and Kaloyan Velkov.
The assailant, 43-year-old Tobias Rathjen who targeted two shisha bars, namely Midnight Shisha Bar and Arena Bar and Cafe in a German town on February 19, 2020, injured five others.
Before the attack, Rathjen posted a 'manifesto' on the internet in which he advocated for genocide and shared conspiracy theories about migrants.
It is not the first time he revealed his intentions, as he also communicated with German authorities through the letters in which he shared his opinions.
The assault impacted Hanau’s rooted migrant community who has come there as guest workers and took German residence as the years pass, leaving many in a sense of lingering insecurity.
Suspected links of German institutions to far-right extremism
Not an isolated event in Germany's recent history, the Hanau incident followed two other right-wing extremist attacks in 2019—the assassination of Walter Lubcke and the anti-Semitic Halle Synagogue attack.
In the 2019 synagogue incident, right-wing extremists murdered a pro-refugee legislator in Kassel, increasing concerns about far-right terror in the country.
These racially motivated attacks showed a historical blind spot in identifying neo-Nazi motivations behind such atrocities, as German authorities have long overlooked far-right extremism and neo-Nazi groups' activities.
After the attack, Germany was prompted to establish the Cabinet Committee for the Fight Against Racism and Right-wing Extremism.
It is followed by the adoption of 89 measures, backed by a budget of approximately one billion euros, to combat right-wing extremism and racism.
The country's domestic intelligence agency also classified the Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party as suspected extremists and placed them under surveillance in March 2021.
However, these measures did not alleviate the threat of far-right racism as the perpetrator of Hanau attack’s father, Hans-Ger Rathjen, continued open threats to families of the victims through the letters he sent.
Insecurity among German minorities
German minorities still share the common sentiment as they thought that this far-right Nazi mindset has penetrated deep into the country's institutions like the police, administration, and judiciary.
Neo-Nazis have long been a prominent presence in German society despite the disreputation of Nazism by Hitler, as they were active through the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a neo-Nazi militant organisation.
The organisation, which was operative until 2010, targeted Turkish migrants between 2000 and 2007.
The hatred against minorities has been also carried by the far-right political party AfD (Alternative for Germany) since 2013, fostering an official channel of expression for racism and hate crimes.
The party currently holds 78 seats in the Federal Parliament.
The main target of the far-right has been the country’s Muslim community including Arabs and Turks who came there as guest workers in the 1960s..
The surge in anti-Muslim sentiments in Germany
In the first half of 2023, German police have recorded 258 anti-Muslim crimes according to figures from the parliament.
The information provided by the ministry revealed that the cases included hate crimes, threatening letters, verbal and physical assaults, vandalism or property damage.
Between January and June, a series of attacks targeted over a dozen mosques, consisting of physical assaults and verbal harassment of numerous Muslims in public spaces. 17 people were injured in these attacks.
Since Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, the country has also been facing an increase in attacks against Muslim minorities.
Germany's largest Muslim organisation reported a significant surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes against mosques since October 7.
Attributing this rise to the influence of far-right politicians' propaganda and biased media coverage of recent developments, it is revealed that there have been 81 attacks against mosques since the start of the year, with nearly half occurring after October 7.
It was also noted that there has been a growing trend of racist threats targeting mosques.
With a population of over 84 million people, Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the country’s nearly 5.3 million Muslims, 3 million are of Turkish origin.
