It has been announced that the Anti-Muslim Racism Reporting Center (MEDAR), established after three years of work in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where more than 1.7 million Muslims live in Germany, is planned to open in spring 2025.
The Anti-Muslim Racism Reporting Center will be opened for the first time in Germany. According to a report by state public broadcaster WDR, the center, which is the first of its kind in the country and was established by the NRW state government, will record and report attacks and crimes targeting Muslims. With the start of MEDAR, racist activities against non-Muslim foreigners will also be reported. The center, which is planned to open in March or April at the latest, is the product of three years of work. It is estimated that more than 1.7 million Muslims live in NRW, the first federal state to establish its own state reporting center for anti-Muslim incidents and with a population of more than 18 million. The state has experienced numerous attacks on Muslims and places of worship. In January 2022, gravestones were broken and overturned in an attack on several Muslim graves in the state city of Iserlohn. In April 2022, the Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center (RIAS NRW), a reporting center for anti-Semitic incidents, was opened in NRW.
