Germany’s first anti-Muslim racism reporting center to open in 2025

North Rhine-Westphalia, a populous western German state, will open the country’s first anti-Muslim racism reporting center in spring 2025, local media reported.

The state, home to more than 1.7 million Muslims, will establish the center, called MEDAR, to document and report attacks and crimes targeting Muslims.

The center, set to be established by the state government, will also track other racist activities directed at non-Muslim foreigners, public broadcaster WDR reported on Friday. MEDAR is expected to open by March or April 2025 and follows three years of preparation.

North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state with more than 18 million residents, will be the first in the country to launch a dedicated reporting center for anti-Muslim incidents. The region has seen several attacks on Muslims and their places of worship. In January 2022, numerous Muslim graves in the city of Iserlohn were vandalized, with headstones broken and overturned.

The state also launched the Research and Information Center on Anti-Semitism in April 2022, aimed at documenting antisemitic incidents across the region.