[6] In a 2014 academic publication, it was estimated that some 20,000-100,000 Germans converted to Islam, numbers which are comparable to those in France and in the United Kingdom.

However, unlike in most other European countries, sizeable Muslim communities exist in some rural regions of Germany, especially Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and parts of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia.

While the number and localisation of citizens attributed to major Christian denominations could be pulled from Resident registration, no such data were available on unrecognized religious communities.

In September 1943 Hitler specifically decreed that Muslim Germans could be members of the party as well as people of Christian denominations.

[21] After the West German Government invited foreign workers ("Gastarbeiter") in 1961, the figure sharply rose to currently 4.3 million (most of them Turkish from the rural region of Anatolia in southeast Turkey).

[23] In 2017, Muslims and Islamic institutions were targeted by attacks 950 times, where houses are painted with Nazi symbols, hijab-wearing women are harassed, threatening letters are sent and 33 people were injured.

[26] In December 2018, the government of Germany strengthened the control of Saudi, Kuwaiti and Qatari funding for radical mosque congregations.

The measure was recommended by an anti-terrorist agency in Berlin (German: Terrorismus-Abwehrzentrum) which since 2015 had started to monitor Safalist proselytizing funding in the wake of the European migrant crisis to prevent refugees from becoming radicalized.

Trials for Islamic religious education are underway in several states, and it is already a regular class in Hessen, Lower Saxony, and North Rhine-Westphalia.

[citation needed] The discussion of religious (Islamic) education in German schools started in the 1970s, and also symmetrically with issues of Qur'anic classes as well as its deterrent effects on the integration of Turkish students into the country.

[54] According to a 2007 Federal Ministry of the Interior report, almost half of all young Muslims in Germany express fundamentalist views.

[55] A 2012 poll found that 72% of Turks in Germany see Islam as the only true religion,[56][57][58] while 46% expressed a preference for a growing Muslim population in the future.

[59] A 2013 study by the Social Science Research Center Berlin found that two-thirds of Muslims prioritize religious rules over national laws, nearly 60% reject homosexual friends, 45% distrust Jews, and many believe the West aims to destroy Islam.

For comparison, among Christians, 9% are openly anti-Semitic, 13% reject homosexual friends, and 23% think Muslims aim to destroy Western culture.

[64] Security chief Hans-Georg Maaßen noted that the movement lacks a single leader, requiring many individuals to be monitored.

The Federal Agency for Civic Education noted that these bans illustrate how Salafist mosques can be involved in planning terrorism.

[67] In 2016, the German security service estimated that around 24,000 Muslims were involved in Islamist movements, with 10,000 linked to the Salafist scene.

[69] By March 2018, 760 Islamists in Germany were classified as dangerous by police, with more than half residing in the country, including 153 in prison.

[71][72] German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere stated that donations to IHH, presented as humanitarian aid, actually supported Hamas.

[74][75] A 2017 Bielefeld University study reported that antisemitic harassment and assaults in Germany were perpetrated equally by individuals from the extreme right and left, with a significant portion also committed by Muslims.

[76][77] According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the majority of Islamist organizations in Germany cultivate antisemitic propaganda and distribute it in various ways.