Islamophobia and anti-Muslim feeling in Saxony – theoretical approaches and empirical findings based on population surveys

Abstract

The uprising of PEGIDA and a high rate of politically motivated hate crimes in the East German state Saxony has created an image of this state as a stronghold of Islamophobia and right-wing extremism. Against this background our leading questions are: Are people’s attitudes to Muslims particularly negative in Saxony when compared to the rest of Germany? What are the causes of these attitudes? And, what consequences do these attitudes have? The results of a theory-led descriptive and multivariate statistical analysis of the data of the Saxony Monitor reveals that the Saxons are not particularly more Islamophobic than individuals in other East German states. However, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments can be found more often in East than in West Germany. The results demonstrate that anti-Muslim feeling is caused by a combination of factors. More relevant than actual economic disadvantage are subjective and strongly emotional factors, by which is meant primarily fears and the feeling of threat to one’s own culture, as well as authoritarian attitudes. The fact that a right-wing extremist attitude goes along with the rejection of Muslims should also be understood as a warning not to trivialize anti-Muslim attitudes as being merely a criticism of Islam.