Again, you're confusing politicised religion with personal faith. People can't pick and choose what they believe in. They don't sit and believe in the Abrahamic God, Buddha's teachings or any number of the Siku or Hindu gods because they brushed through a catalogue and said "I want that religion". Sure, they might lose faith and switch to another religion, but this happens astonishingly rarely. Others convert (which is basically feigning belief) to marry.

More often than not, people just lapse into non-practising adherents.

Neither Christianity nor Islam have "universal aspirations" beyond proselytising. Some denominations or religious schools, however, may aspire to more violent conquest, but that's not something that can be attributed to an entire religion. The religion is basically just the prophetic legacy - it's through exegesis that the problems arise.

It's generally poverty and poor education that breed the kinds of religious fundamentalism that you refer to. We see this not only in the Middle East, as you say, with some Islamist states, but also in Africa with Christian fundamentalism - the most extreme example being the LRA. In the few countries where living standards and education are somewhat more advanced, so too are the problems with these kinds of religious fundamentalism less pronounced.

The AfD stopped being viable when Bernd Lucke was effectively ousted. The signs of the party basically turning full Nazi were there when Gauland started raising his profile. Since then, all the other right-wing extremists have followed suit. The media coverage is very much accurate and to the point - no unjust demonisation there. Or are we to believe that the catchphrases "Islam doesn't belong in Germany" and talking about shooting migrants at the border were misquoted?

There's one AfD politician I have a modicum of respect for, even though I disagree with many of his positions - Jörg Meuthen - and quite frankly, I have no idea what he's still doing in the AfD. He himself doesn't seem to have recognised that the party has changed beyond all recognition. He's respectful, both of minorities in their own right and of the constitution and refrains from the kinds of hyperbolic rhetoric you otherwise often hear in the AfD, whereas the bulk of the party members and its electorate are vile, vicious animals who only differentiate themselves from Nazis by deliberately avoiding the use of the swastika and deflecting criticism by accusing everyone else of being dictators.

Personality cults tend to develop around any electorally successful party candidate, regardless of political orientation: Thatcher, Blair, Schröder, Kohl, Clinton, Bush, Obama. They know that a character - not policies - wins elections, so they focus on character traits and centre everything around that candidate.

And the far-right is worst for creating cults of personality around its candidates: look at how carefully Nigel Farage's image is maintained and pruned in the UK. The only exception is Germany, where the far right parties have traditionally avoided centering publicity around any one candidate. Note how the AfD consistently and strategically bounces the spotlight back and forth between Petry, Gauland, Meuthen and Höcke - the gender minority, the old man, the moderate and the extremist.