Germany grapples with return of pro-Kurdish fighters from Syria

Much public concern and political squabbling in Europe has focused on returnees from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq. Above all, anxieties have been centred on the potential security risks posed by former fighters and supporters of the so-called Islamic State. Over 1,000 German citizens and residents had joined the self-declared caliphate in the Levant;…

Share Button
Read More

As Germany recruits Jewish military chaplains Muslims remain side-lined

Just like the population at large, the German Bundeswehr has undergone a remarkable trajectory of religious pluralisation in recent years. As of 2012, over 48,000 Catholics and over 63,000 Protestants served in the armed forces. This would mean that just over half of Germany’s 180,000 soldiers identified as Christian; a figure that maps quite closely onto…

Share Button
Read More

New Austrian Conservative-Green government doubles down on anti-immigration, anti-Islam stance

Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Chancellor and leader of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) has pulled off a remarkable political feat: having governed in a coalition with the far-right nationalists of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) since 2017, he has not only emerged unscathed from the rubble of his ÖVP-FPÖ government, which collapsed amidst a corruption scandal….

Share Button
Read More

German army, intelligence agencies, and CDU party embroiled in far-right network

The elite KSK brigade of the German Army is a notoriously secretive military unit: composed of 1,000 hand-picked soldiers, it is tasked with conducting covert operations, hostage rescue abroad, and counter-terrorism interventions. In recent weeks, however, the KSK – the abbreviation stands for Kommando Spezialkräfte – has been dragged into the spotlight: after two soldiers…

Share Button
Read More

New initiatives challenge anti-Muslim biases in German media landscape

Biased representations of Islam and Muslims abound across Europe, in journalism as well as in research. The situation is no different in Germany, as a recent book edited by Berlin-based academic Schirin-Amir Moazami shows: contributors to the volume Der Inspizierte Muslim (German for The Inspected Muslim) analyse the myriad ways in which research and public debates about Muslims –…

Share Button
Read More