AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A university professor in Germany has racially abused a Muslim student for wearing a headscarf in his class, according to her lawyer.
The lawyer, Fatih Zingal, said the incident took place during an economics lesson at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg university in northwestern Germany.
He said the professor used racist slurs and even equated the Muslim woman’s headscarf with the swastika symbol of neo-Nazis.
“Article 4 of the German Constitution protects religious freedom, and a student can attend lessons by wearing a headscarf. The attitude of this professor is absolutely unacceptable,” he told Anadolu Agency.
The incident was one of many Islamophobic attacks and hate crimes in Germany, especially targeting women with Islamic covers.
The student, Gulsen Kurt, said she was shocked by the lecturer’s racist remarks and that most of the students reacted and walked out of the class in solidarity.
“The professor said that he will not allow a student with headscarf to attend the class, just as he would not allow a neo-Nazi wearing a swastika. He shouted at me, saying ‘you are an Islamofascist’, and that he will report me to the directorate,” she said.
Kurt said the administration apologized to her for the racist incident and made it clear that they did not approve of the lecturer’s conduct.
Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France, with nearly 5 million Muslims living in the country of over 84 million people.
The country has seen a rise in racism and Islamophobia in recent years, driven by the propaganda of far-right groups and parties.
Last year, German police recorded 5,372 xenophobic incidents and 610 Islamophobic hate crimes.
Experts say these numbers could be much higher, as many cases are not properly investigated or reported in the official statistics.
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