Geneva, March 28, 2025 — A sobering UN Human Rights Council side event, “State Religious Segregation and Discrimination,” organizad by Fundacion para la Mejora de la Vida, la Cultura y la Sociedad, exposed Germany’s systemic targeting of religious minorities, with a focus on rising Islamophobia and its ties to far-right political movements across Europe. The panel—featuring human rights experts, politicians, and victims of discrimination—revealed how state policies, media narratives, and institutional bias have created a climate of fear for Muslim communities while drawing parallels to Germany’s simultaneous persecution of Scientologists.
Dr. Boumediene Benyahia, a leading voice on religious discrimination, delivered a particularly damning analysis of Germany’s Islamophobia crisis, linking it to broader European far-right radicalization.
Dr. Benyahia’s Key Arguments: Islamophobia as a Systemic European Crisis
1. The Far-Right’s Anti-Migrant Weaponization
Benyahia began by contextualizing Germany’s discrimination within Europe’s political shift. The AfD’s alarming 20.8% electoral success in 2025, he argued, mirrors trends in France, Italy, and Hungary, where far-right parties exploit anti-migrant sentiment to gain power.
“The AfD’s rhetoric conflates immigration with terrorism,” he said, “despite Germany’s own data showing far-right groups commit 85% of terrorist acts. Yet media and politicians fixate on Islamist threats, inflaming public fear.” This deliberate distortion, he noted, reduces millions of Muslim citizens—many of whom are native-born Germans—to perpetual “foreigners” tied to security risks.
2. Institutionalized Suspicion: Surveillance and Exclusion
A shocking revelation came with Benyahia’s disclosure that 38% of Muslim organizations in Germany are under state surveillance without evidence. “This isn’t security—it’s collective punishment,” he asserted, comparing it to France’s “separatism law,” which disproportionately targets Muslim communities under the guise of fighting extremism.
He also criticized Berlin’s Neutrality Law, which bans religious symbols like headscarves in public jobs: “These policies don’t protect secularism; they erase Muslim identity from public life.”
3. Media Complicity and the “Vicious Cycle” of Radicalization
Benyahia reserved sharp condemnation for media outlets that amplify far-right narratives. “When news platforms disproportionately report Islamist attacks while ignoring far-right violence, they legitimize discrimination,” he said. This bias, coupled with policies like halal food bans in some EU states (e.g., Switzerland’s 2009 minaret prohibition), fosters a climate where hate crimes surge—1,926 Islamophobic incidents in 2023, a 30% rise from 2021.
“The state’s response—more surveillance, more exclusion—only deepens alienation,” he warned. “We’re creating the very radicalization we claim to fight.”
The Bigger Picture: Europe’s Repeating Mistakes
Benyahia drew historical parallels to France’s colonial-era marginalization of Muslims, but stressed Germany’s crisis is newer and more politically engineered. “This isn’t about ‘integration failures,’” he said. “It’s about parties manufacturing an enemy to win votes.”
He also highlighted the overlap with Germany’s persecution of Scientologists (detailed later by Ivan Arjona), noting: “The tools are the same: state-mandated exclusion, dehumanizing rhetoric, and the reduction of faith to a security threat.”
Calls to Action: Breaking the Cycle
Benyahia proposed concrete solutions:
- Decouple Migration from Security Debates: “Stop framing immigration as a crime problem.”
- Media Accountability: “Regulate hate speech without stifling free expression.”
- Education Reform: “Teach intercultural understanding to dismantle stereotypes.”
- UN Scrutiny: “The international community must pressure Germany to uphold its human rights commitments.”
A Warning for Europe
Benyahia’s speech was more than a critique—it was a dire forecast. “Germany is normalizing religious apartheid,” he declared, “and if Europe doesn’t intervene, we’ll repeat the 20th century’s worst mistakes.”
The event’s most haunting question came from an audience member: “If Germany—a nation built on ‘Never Again’—can target minorities like this, who’s safe?” The UN’s response, or lack thereof, may soon answer that.
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First published in this link of The European Times.
