Islamophobia Rises in Germany amid Immigrants Upsurge: Poll

Alwaght- Islamophobia has risen sharply in Germany after more than one million migrants, mostly Muslims, arrived last year, a new poll shows.

In a study published on Wednesday, Every second respondent in the study of 2,420 people said they sometimes felt like a foreigner in their own country due to the many Muslims here, up from 43 percent in 2014 and 30.2 percent in 2009.

The number of people who believe Muslims should be forbidden from coming to Germany has also risen, the study showed, and now stands at just above 40 percent, up from about a fifth in 2009.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Leipzig in co-operation with the Heinrich Boell Foundation, the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation and the Otto-Brenner foundation.

The influx of migrants has fueled support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party that wants to ban minarets and the burqa and has described Islam as incompatible with the German constitution. The number of attacks on refugee shelters has also risen.

The number of those surveyed that believed Sinti and Roma peoples tended towards criminality rose to nearly 60 percent, while slightly more than 80 percent of respondents wanted the state not to be too generous when examining asylum applications.

Almost 40 percent of those surveyed in east Germany agreed with the statement that foreigners only came to Germany to take advantage of its social welfare benefits, compared to about 30 percent of those in the west of the country.

Early April, German police recorded almost 300 attacks and other criminal offences on refugee shelters since the beginning of the year. 

Law enforcement agencies fear that the 2016 attacks against refugee shelters across Germany could exceed last year's level.

Germany has witnessed multiple similar attacks on residences for refugees as the country took in more than one million asylum seekers in 2015. LEGIDA which is an offshoot of the anti-Islam and anti-refugee group PEGIDA, protested against the government's refugee policy.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

Major Western powers have been blamed for the unprecedented exodus due to their policies of militarily intervening in other countries, leading e led to a surge in terrorism and war in those regions, forcing more people to flee their homes.