RUTHFULLY YOURS

Earlier this year, activist and blogger Michael Stürzenberger became the victim of an Islamist attack because of his harsh criticism of Islam. Now, six months later, he has been convicted for incitement to hatred and given a fine by a regional court in Hamburg – also because of his harsh criticism of Islam.

In May, a former refugee from Afghanistan targeted and attacked Stürzenberger and six others during a rally organised by Stürzenberger’s campaign group, Pax Europa, in Mannheim, south-west Germany. The incident left one policeman dead, Stürzenberger severely injured – he needed several operations on his face and knee – and a nation in shock.

Stürzenberger’s incitement conviction is not directly related to the incidents in Mannheim. Instead, it relates to statements he made at a rally in Hamburg in 2020. He was originally found guilty of incitement to hatred and given a six-month prison sentence at a Hamburg court in September 2022, but appealed the conviction. Last month the court upheld the original verdict, but reduced his sentence to a fine of €3,600.

According to reports, his punishment was reduced because he had since become a victim of an assassination attempt. Another mitigating factor was that he had not given any public speeches since the Mannheim attack.

The Stürzenberg case shows how dangerous, intimidating and anti-democratic Germany’s laws against incitement to hatred and hate speech are. It would be difficult to find a country in Western Europe that restricts free speech as radically as Germany does – especially when it comes to criticising Islam. Indeed, the German elites regard criticism of Islam as an act of right-wing extremism that needs to be censored.

This is why Stürzenberger, infamous for his anti-Islam stance, has been the subject of so much scrutiny from the authorities and the mainstream media. As far back as 2014, Der Spiegel published a feature on Stürzenberger and others criticising their ‘anti-Islam rhetoric’ and asking ‘whether it’s time for a new kind of hate-crime legislation’.

There’s little doubt that Stürzenberger can be offensive. He claims that his criticism only applies to ‘political Islam’, calling it a threat to democracy and an ideology that oppresses women. But he has also compared parts of the Koran with Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and – while saying that not all Muslims are rapists – has talked of ‘thousands of women’ who have been sexually assaulted by Muslims from Northern Africa and Arabia.

Still, such statements hardly warrant the harsh, legal persecution that Stürzenberger has faced. It is difficult to escape the impression that he has been targeted by German political and media elites because of their fear of right-wing populism. That is, they fear his criticism of Islam will further fuel the rise of the populist right. After all, Stürzenberger gives voice to many Germans’ scepticism and rejection of mass migration from majority Muslim countries.

Indeed, over a decade ago, the then mayor of Munich said how worried he was about Stürzenberger making his speeches against the background of rising support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD). He claimed that populists were trying to appeal to people through anti-Islam rhetoric.

It seems German elites have responded by trying to clamp down on criticism of Islam. This determination to censor Islam’s critics, and therefore suppress the populist surge, was reflected in the mainstream media’s coverage of the Mannheim terror attacks. They largely refused to characterise Stürzenberger as any sort of victim, despite the severity of his injuries. One article in the left-liberal taz newspaper simply stated that ‘Bavarian Michael Stürzenberger has been agitating against Islam for years [and] now he has been seriously injured by a knife attacker’. In other words, he brought it on himself.

It’s difficult to avoid the frightening conclusion that both Islamist terrorists and the German authorities share a similar objective. Both want to silence critics of Islam. It’s just that where the Islamist terrorist would like to silence Stürzenberger through violence, the authorities are attempting to do so through the law.

Both send out a chilling warning to everyone – criticising Islam in Germany can get you in deep trouble.

Sabine Beppler-Spahl is spiked’s Germany correspondent.