Muslims in Germany are being squeezed from both right and left

Muslims in Germany are being squeezed from both right and left Submitted by Aysegul Colak on Mon, 09/14/2026 - 13:16 By copying far-right migration rhetoric to halt AfD gains, Berlin leaves the country's largest minority politically homeless and weakens the democracy it claims to defend Alice Weidel of the AfD walks past German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Bundestag, Berlin, on 9 September 2026 (John MacDougall/AFP) Off "The people want political change," said Alice Weidel on 6 September.

She joined 35-year-old lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund in Magdeburg, the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, to celebrate an unprecedented victory for Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Their party captured 43.8 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt.

That outcome beat Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which plunged to 17.2 percent, while leaving the Social Democrats stranded at 9.3 percent.

The result delivered a crushing verdict on two years of centrist attempts to neutralise the far right by adopting its rhetoric.

For two years, mainstream parties believed they could starve the far right of oxygen by adopting its agenda.

Federal ministers rushed to toughen asylum rules and accelerate deportations towards Syria and Afghanistan, hoping to outflank the AfD on security.

By treating Middle Eastern and Muslim minorities as an inherent civic liability, Germany’s centrist parties have dismantled the democratic firewall they claim to protect.

For Germany’s 5.5 million Muslims, the political ground has vanished. The squeeze comes from both sides.

The far right demands their forced departure under the banner of remigration, while the democratic centre treats their presence as an acute security deficit.

That hardline posture began in September 2024 under the Social Democratic federal interior minister at the time, Nancy Faeser.

Following regional shocks, such as the fatal stabbing in Solingen and historic far-right election victories in Thuringia and Saxony, Faeser imposed police controls across all nine of Germany’s land borders, suspending standard European freedom of movement to demonstrate state toughness.

Federal police began stopping commuter trains and searching vehicles along frontiers with France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark. From the opposition benches in 2024, Merz raised the stakes.

The CDU leader demanded a national migration emergency under European Union treaties to reject asylum seekers at frontiers.

Now, installed in the Chancellery, Merz has made that hardline agenda official federal policy, threatening to revoke residency rights from naturalised offenders. Such rhetoric lands heavily on Middle Eastern communities.

Families who fled Aleppo, Damascus and Baghdad a decade ago now watch German politicians compete over who can return them fastest to unstable homelands.

Even third-generation German citizens of Turkish and Arab heritage find their belonging questioned in mainstream political debates. Street violence For decades, immigrant communities voted reliably for the centre-left.

Turkish guest workers arriving under the 1961 recruitment treaty and subsequent Arab arrivals long relied on the Social Democrats and the Greens to protect constitutional equality.

That trust started to collapse in October 2023, when Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared on the cover of Der Spiegel that “ Germany must deport on a large scale ”.

Centrist leaders now routinely blame migrant communities for public disorder, treating integration as a disciplinary exercise instead of an equal civic contract. Grassroots organisations feel the chill directly.

Muslim youth projects funded through the federal programme Demokratie Leben (Democracy Live) report sudden contract cancellations and invasive administrative audits whenever politicians allege proximity to conservative Islam.

How Germany is manufacturing the Islamist bogeyman Read More » State scrutiny has grown intense across western German cities.

Community centres face regular police inspections, while municipal authorities deny permits for cultural gatherings on speculative public-safety grounds. Street violence reflects the human cost.

This past June, the Berlin civil-society network Alliance Against Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate reported 4,096 anti-Muslim incidents across Germany during 2025, a 33 percent surge within 12 months.

The registry recorded 214 physical assaults and five arson attacks against mosques.

Mosques across North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin report hate mail and vandalism, while women wearing headscarves encounter regular verbal abuse on public transport. Community leaders see an institutional failure.

Abdassamad El Yazidi, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, warned that mainstream adoption of exclusionary rhetoric leaves millions of citizens feeling like second-class Germans.

When democratic parties validate far-right premises, Yazidi noted, they tell minority citizens that their constitutional rights remain permanently conditional. The legal structure offers no cover for such capitulation.

At the Erlangen Centre for Islam and Law in Europe, Mathias Rohe points out that collective suspicion directly infringes Article 3 of the Basic Law, which guarantees equality before the law.

A constitutional order cannot preserve fundamental rights by applying double standards against its own citizens. Rebuilding shattered trust To be sure, mainstream leaders face genuine security obligations.

Merz and his ministers argue that visible border enforcement and strict policing are essential to reassure an anxious public, counter violent extremism and preserve democratic stability.

However, copying the far right never defeats it.

As traditional conservatives learned in France, Austria and the Netherlands, adopting anti-immigrant rhetoric only legitimises far-right claims, prompting voters to choose the original over the imitation.

Democratic institutions require broad civic buy-in to survive. By pushing millions of citizens into political alienation, centrist parties shrink the coalition willing to defend the constitutional order.

A democracy that treats an entire segment of its population as a permanent security threat forfeits its own moral authority.

A democracy that treats an entire segment of its population as a permanent security threat forfeits its own moral authority Political homelessness is the dangerous result. Even turning to the left offers little shelter.

Die Linke remains structurally locked out of power, while the Greens compromised their core civil-rights positions during their recent tenure in government.

Casting defensive ballots for sidelined opposition parties is powerless to halt Germany’s rightward shift.

Without a credible voice in the Bundestag, many young German Muslims face a stark choice between permanent electoral abstention and bitter civic withdrawal, while community networks abandoned by established parties risk retreating entirely from public life.

Berlin could still change course.

Restoring terminated contracts for youth projects under Demokratie Leben, ending blanket administrative suspicion, and formally engaging the Central Council of Muslims as equal civic partners would begin rebuilding shattered trust.

Back in Magdeburg, Ulrich Siegmund does not need to enter a governing coalition to dictate national policy.

By forcing the centre to abandon millions of Muslim citizens, he has already won the battle for the republic’s future.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Germany Opinion Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0