Radical
Islamist cells are spreading all across eastern German states while
terrorism-related tip-offs emerge on daily, says the head of
Thuringia’s domestic intelligence agency, adding that the right
extremist underground is becoming “a nationwide problem.”
Islamist
extremists were advancing “with impunity” in rural areas
of eastern Germany even before the ongoing influx of refugees into
the country, Stephan Kramer, head of Thuringia’s regional Office
for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) told Mitteldeutsche
Zeitung, as cited by Die Welt.
Nowadays,
the security environment in the east has deteriorated even more,
Kramer maintains.
“We are
getting tip-offs leading to terrorist suspects every day,” he
said, adding however that it is equally crucial to distinguish
between actual suspects and false alarms.
He then
mentioned Jaber al-Bakr, a Syrian refugee who was detained in October
last year on suspicion of plotting to bomb an airport in Berlin. When
police raided his flat in the eastern town of Chemnitz, some 1.5kg of
home-made explosives, like those used in the fatal jihadist attacks
in Paris in November 2015 and in Brussels last March, were found.
“We
have similar cases here in Thuringia, and I know from other
colleagues in the eastern German states that it is the same there,”
Kramer said without elaborating. The intelligence officer did not
name any specific Islamist groups, only stressing that “this is
a nationwide problem.”
In a
separate interview to Frankfurter Runschau, Kramer said the far-right
extremists pose an equal threat to public safety.
“It is
increasingly acceptable to achieve political goals through violence,”
Kramer stressed.
“Unlike
the Islamist [threat], we are dealing with an existential problem,”
he asserted, adding that the rise of the right-wing terrorism could
not be ruled out either. “Our working hypothesis is that there
are more far-right terrorist cells and networks than we know, and it
is no secret that groups like the ‘Oldschool Society’, ‘Blood
and Honor’, ‘Combat 18’ and the Turonen are active now.”
Several days
before Kramer’s interview, Gordian Meyer-Plath, head of Saxony’s
domestic intelligence, alerted that Muslim Brotherhood – a
transnational Sunni fundamentalist organization considered a
terrorist group in Bahrain, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the UAE –
is actively investing into real estate and are trying to “monopolize”
mosques in the region to increase its influence.
Members of
the Muslim Brotherhood “have long been active in Saxony,
although they were stealthy,” Meyer-Plath told Germany’s MDR
broadcaster.
He warned,
however, that “only now, when a [large] number of Muslims have
come to Germany, do they see a chance to expand their network beyond
some central structures and become interesting for the new Muslims in
Saxony.”
Though the
threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany is “beyond
jihad,” the security services would continue to monitor the
Brotherhood’s activities in Saxony. BfV figures show that about
1,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood are active in Germany, as
reported by MDR.
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