A children and youth charity from Berlin is warning that radical Islam is increasingly making inroads at German schools.
On April 27, Wolfgang Büscher, spokesman of Christian NGO Arche, warned in an interview with magazine Focus that Muslim students under the influence of political Islam were increasingly mobbing their fellow pupils.
Büscher said: “I want to warn society: The pressure that political Islam is exerting through Muslim pupils on students at our schools is getting bigger and bigger.
“If politics does not intervene now, we could rue this bitterly in a few years.”
Büscher added that the problem was not new but increasingly worrying. Arche said it could see in its own youth-care centres that many Muslim parents were handing their radicalised views down to their children.
“We have little hardcore Muslims, mini-Islamists, growing up. And our politicians have so far not found any effective means against this movement,” he said.
Schools with high percentages of students with a migrant background are also seeing higher rates of religion-based mobbing, Büscher said, adding: “Our staff from Arche centres see more and more often that students who do not comply with the strict way of life of political Islam are marginalised, accosted, intimidated and partially even forced to convert to Islam if they adhere to a different faith.”
It is primarily the children of immigrants from Palestinian areas, Syria and Iraq who exhibit such behaviour, Arche said.
The victims include Christian and Jewish children but also Musim children who do not conform with the strict rules of political Islam.
Büscher claimed: “In the eyes of the radicals, everybody who does not follow their strict interpretation of Islam is an infidel.”
Arche is accusing German politics of turning a blind eye on the issue.
“The Germans simply have difficulties with openly talking about big problems,” Büscher said.
Ultimately, society should realise that the biggest threat if faces may not come from right-wing or left-wing extremism, but from radicalised Muslims, he warned.
Büscher concluded: “The extremism of political Islam could develop into a much bigger problem in a few years’ time if countermeasures are not taken now.”
Arche is a charity of the Protestant Church, which offers child and youth-care services in Berlin and other German cities.
In 2025, around 43 per cent of all German pupils had a migration background, according to surveys. There are no numbers available on the percentage of Muslim pupils although one estimate puts it at up to 15 per cent of all German students and up to 30 per cent in Berlin.
In June 2025, the Berlin city government – led by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz – decided to rescind a ban on headscarves for teachers.
