Racism report

More attacks on Muslims – especially in schools

According to the documentation center, Muslim women are particularly affected.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

The Documentation Center recorded 1522 cases of racist attacks on Muslims in 2023. This is the highest number since the documentation began in 2015, explained head Rumeysa Dür-Kwieder at the presentation of the report in Vienna on Monday. 

The number of reported cases has risen particularly sharply since the escalation of violence in the Middle East following the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7. According to the anti-Muslim racism report, more cases were recorded from October to December than in the first nine months of 2023.

School as a crime scene
The first place where more cases were reported from October onwards was school, emphasizes Dunia Khalil, head of legal advice at the Documentation Centre. In the education sector, anti-Muslim incidents were reported by parents, pupils and teachers.

The documentation center recorded a significant increase in actively reported cases in the previous year. 507 cases - twice as many as in the previous year - were brought to the documentation center's psychosocial and legal advice service by victims and witnesses in 2023. 1015 online cases were documented by the monitoring team.

Assaults on the internet
Overall, two thirds of the documented cases took place online, one third offline. Most of these cases concerned unequal treatment (40.8 percent) and insults (19.5 percent). The spread of hate accounted for 8.9 percent of the documented cases, while 2.6 percent were physical assaults.

The documentation center reports a new high in the number of reported cases.

(Bild: Dokustelle)

In contrast, the vast majority of cases documented online (87.8 percent) concerned the spread of hate. Muslims are dehumanized and compared to animals in online comments, reports Khalil. Many would also attribute sole responsibility for anti-Semitism to Muslims.

According to the report, women are particularly affected by anti-Muslim racism: 50.1 percent of the documented cases concerned Muslim women, 19.5 percent male Muslims and the gender of the others is unknown.

High number of unreported cases suspected
Apart from the last quarter of the previous year, the documentation center also recorded a particular increase in reported cases in May. This is attributed to the implementation of a study conducted by the University of Vienna among Muslim schoolchildren and the media coverage of this.

The documentation center emphasizes that its statistics are a snapshot and that the actual number of racist cases is assumed to be significantly higher. Khalil spoke of a "worrying development" that is increasingly contributing to a division in society. The documentary therefore calls for more attention to be paid to anti-Muslim racism.