Author: Stephen Brown
Publication: FrontPageMagazine.com
Date: August 29, 2003
Muslim extremists in Germany have
adopted a new and disturbing tactic in their crusade to turn Europe
into an Islamic state.
According to the German intelligence
agency, the Office for the Defense of the Federal Constitution, Muslim
fundamentalists intend to establish their own political party that
will take part in German elections. Their aim is eventually to have
representatives sitting in the Bundestag (the German parliament);
and, to that end, they are urging their followers to acquire German
citizenship, so they will then be eligible to vote. About 500,000
Muslims from among Germany's three and a half million Muslim population
currently possess voting rights in the Federal Republic.
German intelligence agencies say
the drive for electoral legitimacy is part of a two-prong strategy
Islamists are pursuing in their country. On the one hand, they are
making efforts to present themselves to the outside world as tolerant,
loyal upholders of law and order, while simultaneously secretly working
to undermine the existing system. The conservative Interior Minister
for the state of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, calls their activities an
infiltration that represents "a creeping danger for our social order."
A sermon recorded at a mosque in
Bavaria, outlined in an intelligence report, confirms the German
agencies' findings. After first calling America and Britain "devils"
and Israel "a bloodsucking vampire", its venomous contents continued
as follows:
"The Europeans were once our slaves;
today it is the Muslims. This must change. We must drive the unbelievers
into deepest hell. We must stick together and hold our peace until
the time comes. You can't see anything yet, but everything is being
prepared in secret. You must hold yourself in readiness for
the right moment. We must exploit democracy for our cause. We must
cover Europe with mosques and schools."
The ODFC estimates there are currently
about 30,000 Muslim fundamentalists in Germany who are prepared to
use violence. Otto Schilly, interior minister for Germany's ruling
federal Socialist Party, said they formed the largest number among
the 57,500 members of foreign extremist organizations present in
his country in 2002. Two hundred of these Islamists are considered
so dangerous that they warrant permanent police surveillance, according
to Manfred Klink, an official in the Federal Crime Office (Germany's
FBI). Klink made this statement at a conference for federal German
crime investigators last month.
It was also reported at the conference
that the "growing professionalism" of the people at the violent center
of Islamic extremism in Germany is a cause for concern. Examples
cited include their skillful use of defensive tactics in interrogations
with German authorities as well as in police chases and shadowing
operations. A conference speaker added that Muslim extremists now
even practice their own counter-intelligence and have spied on German
police officials.
In the 1990s, German authorities
believed Islamic terrorists used their country only as a rest and
transit area as well as an operations base to organize and raise
funds. That changed in December of 2000 when five Algerians living
in Frankfurt were arrested for plotting a terrorist bomb attack in
Strasburg. Since then, other terrorist operations have been uncovered
in Germany. The most famous, of course, was the Hamburg terrorist
cell that harbored three of the four pilots involved in the 9/11
tragedy.
Still others include the Duisburg
cell that is implicated in the Djerba synagogue bombing in Tunisia.
Its members were planning a similar attack on the Indian Ocean island
of La Reunion before their arrest. A cell in the Ruhr area city of
Essen intended to carry out attacks in Germany itself against Jewish
or Israeli establishments with hand grenades before it was broken
up. One of its members had been a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden in
Afghanistan.
Metin Kaplan, the self-styled 'Caliph
of Cologne' and leader of a radical mosque in that city with more
than a thousand followers, was released from a German prison last
May after serving a four-year term for calling for the murder of
a rival. He is suspected of ordering terrorist strikes in Turkey.
But a German court turned down a Turkish extradition request, fearing
he would be subjected to torture once in Turkish hands. His organization,
the 'Caliph State', is now banned.
And when a gold smuggling ring was
broken up earlier this year in Berlin, police found a workshop for
making explosives; plans and aerial photos of German cities; and
fast-acting poisons. According to one German magazine, the leader
of the six-member ring, a Tunisian, was trained at a camp in
Afghanistan. He is also suspected of recruiting Arab students for
terrorist strikes in Germany. Moreover, one of the group's members
was in the process of getting his pilot's license at an airfield near
Berlin using false documents.
German terrorism experts say there
are other sleeper cells and individuals in Germany prepared to carry
out terrorist attacks. Some, according to intelligence agencies,
have already taken out German citizenship as an important tactical
defense against deportation back to their countries of origin.
So, even if apprehended, they soon may still be able to help the
Muslim fundamentalist cause in Germany, but only now with ballots
instead of bombs.
(Stephen Brown is a journalist based
in Toronto. He has an M.A. in Russian and Eastern European Studies.
Email him at alsolzh@hotmail.com.)