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Islam Uber Alles

Islam Uber Alles

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.)
 


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