This text is part of the series "Im Angstland". An overview of all articles can be found here.
Ahmad Hashish is a useless refugee. At least that's what the 20-year-old says about himself, to be more precise: that is the title of his autobiography, which the Syrian has published this year.
Hashish is one who does not care about appearing in public, he does not want to be photographed. He wants to get rid of his message, so he wrote it down. It reads: Many Germans have a fundamental problem with refugees because they have no idea of the lifeworld of such people.
This allegation was formulated by the young Syrian in a polemical article entitled "You are all terrorists", which the "Berliner Zeitung" reprinted last year. Since then, Hashish has been named "Rage Refugee" or "mob asylum seeker" on the right forums (read more here).
"Dogmatic, maybe stupid"
Hashish was not intimidated by this and published his autobiography - although he knew he had to reckon with hateful comments on social networks and on right portals. But it turned out differently.
"I only got positive reactions," says Hashish today. In the meantime, he will hardly be attacked - neither on the Internet nor in his home town of Zeuthen on the southern outskirts of Berlin. "Maybe the Germans just got used to us a bit," he says. In any case, he himself decided not to think about the racist resentments of other people.
Ignorance as self-protection, can that work?
For Hashish apparently already. He is always struck by positive changes in his dealings with his fellow human beings, as the high school student explains: "Some classmates have become more open," he says, he feels more accepted as a human being at eye level.
Affected right-wing assaults
Nevertheless, Hashish does not want to bet on a fundamental opening of society as a whole: "I think people are changing their minds about one person, that is, to me, but not to a whole group," he says. He had given up trying to change that. "Some people can not change, many are just dogmatic, maybe stupid."
Hashish says that without bitterness, it sounds serene, resigned. He is tired of being reduced to his role as a refugee - and of dealing with people whose prejudices he will never change. Next year, he says, he'll graduate from high school and go to college: "I've become more self-confident."