A leading group of German peace researchers warned Monday that racism and a climate of suspicion toward Muslims are putting Germany's "domestic peace" under growing strain.
"Anti-Muslim racism is structurally entrenched and reinforced by security policy discourses," the 2026 Peace Report said, noting that debates on terrorism and migration often fail to distinguish between law-abiding Muslim residents and the small number of extremists.
"As a result, the entire Muslim community fell under blanket suspicion of posing a collective security threat," the report said.
"In the meantime, anti-Muslim racism has come to serve as a vehicle for embedding right-wing agendas and rhetoric across the entire political spectrum. This trend is reinforced by a discourse on migration that is increasingly linked to the construction of anti-Muslim 'enemy images' and demands for ever-harsher measures."
The researchers warned mainstream parties, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives, against adopting the rhetoric of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in an effort to attract voters, stressing that doing so risks advancing the far right's agenda.
"Democratic parties should counter the spread of polarizing and racist discourses in areas such as migration and asylum policy. Otherwise, they indirectly promote the agendas of authoritarian and right-wing extremist parties," the report said.
