Alwaght- It does not take the Islamists in Germany much time to attract the young people to the jihadi activities. Sometimes it takes the groups only a couple of weeks or months to absorb a youth and then send him to Syria.
According to Germany’s Deutsche Welle, Huger Munch, the head of Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany, has explained the activities of the jihadi figures and groups in Germany. In an interview with the German Die Welt daily, Munch has said that so far about 750 of the German Jihadis have travelled to Syria. About one third of them have returned to Germany and about 70 of them were presently equipped with fighting skills.
It seems that Jihad concept still has magnetic effects on many of extremist youths. Germany’s security agencies suggest that currently about 43,000 extremist Islamists are living in Germany, all of which believe that the social affairs must accord with the Islamic Sharia law.
1.Salafists
According to the German security officials the number of Salafis has increased during last year, touching 7,900 people. The Salafis tend to have a strict interpretation of Islamic law or Sharia which is taken from the holy Quran and other religious books. Not all of German Salafis are inclined to use violence to adopt their beliefs, however, the number of violent believers is continuously on the rise. Some religious movements and preachers have a hand in heightening such tendencies.
2.Ansar Al Aseer movement
The Ansar Al Aseer movement, meaning the helpers of the prisoners, is a Salafist formation working to the benefit of Muslim prisoners. Most of the prisoners have links to the jihadi groups and are prisoned due to supporting the terrorist activities in German and other countries. Ansar Al Aseer movement seeks to make new members from among the Muslim prisoners. The movement advises its blog visitors to contact the prisoners and back them up. The blog presents updates about the prisoners and their legal case status.
3.Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
ISIS’ activity is banned in Germany and it mostly promotes its ideology through social networks. The ISIS terror organization is in control of some Iraqi and Syrian territories. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, has announced establishing an Islamic caliphate in 2014. Tens of thousands of extremist Islamists have joined the group, hundreds of them are from Germany.
Formerly being a rap singer from Berlin, Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert possibly joined ISIS in 2012. In ISIS’ promotional videos he called the people to conduct sabotage operations across Germany. He turned to a most significant German language publicist of the ISIS terrorist group. Reportedly, Cuspert was killed in 2015 by a US air force airstrike. Some of extremists are still travelling from Germany to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS group.
4.Hassan Dabbagh
Hassan Dabbagh is an originally Syrian German national who is known as the most important Salafi activist in Germany. He divides people into Muslims and "infidels." Dabbagh is head of association and Imam of Ar-Rahman mosque in Leipzig. He regularly runs classes and Islamic preaches in the mentioned mosque.
A report by Saxony state’s intelligence office suggests that Dabbagh’s preaches could attract the naïve Muslim youths to embrace extremist beliefs. Dabbagh has also launched a “mobile Islamic academy”, travelling to different German cities to promote his beliefs. Some of his teachings are available online.
5.Aid for the Poor Association
Being officially registered in 2013 in Neuis city in Germany as a charity, Aid for the Poor Association has announced that its major aim was to help the poor Muslims. However, North Rhine-Westphalia state’s ministry of interior has seen in the association’s activities “some veins of Salafi Islamism.” According to a report by Germany security office, the association’s campaigns are attended by preachers whose Salafi tendencies are obvious.
6.Ibrahim Abu Najie
Ibrahim Abu Najie was born in 1964 in Nuseirat Camp in Gaza Strip. He was granted German citizenship in 1994. While he has not attended any specific education courses, he is known as one of the most influential Salafi preachers. He distributes online his writing works which promote an extraordinarily extremist interpretation of Sharia law. He persistently insists Muslims’ supremacy over the “infidels.”
Abu Najie runs the Genuine Religion website. Also, there is a TV network holding the same name and its staff are active in Read Lies campaign. The staff was distributing Quran in German language in Germany’s cities. Germany security office’s report released in 2014 suggested that “some of those who were distributing Qurans have ended up in Syria.”
7. Millî Görüş Islamic Movement
Having 31,000 members and much more fans, the Millî Görüş Movement (meaning national vision in English) is the largest Islamist organization operating in Germany. The community was founded by Necmettin Erbakan, a Turkish politician, in the late 1960s. The movement’s leaders see the "capitalism and Zionism" as the main causes for the current “unfair global system” and advise their followers to refrain from befriending the “Infidels.” Mustafa Kamalak , the Millî Görüş' leader, called European Union a “Christian club” and “ union of crusaders.” The movement publishes a journal, Milli Guzzetti, in Germany. In its June 2013 issue the journal claimed that “enacting laws beyond the divine laws is a profane practice.”
8.Lohberg Brigade
In 2013, about 20 young people from Dinslaken town in North Rhine Westphalia state left for Syria to take part in Jihadi missions. Most of them belonged to Lohberg city and chose the same name for their brigade in the battlefield. According to reports the group has embraced extremist beliefs as a result of being influenced by a preacher named Mustafa.
About four of the Dinslaken town’s jihadis have been killed in Syria and at least one of them conducted suicide bombing. One of the group’s possible members has been arrested in 2015 in Germany. He returned to Germany in 2014, and is set to stand trial in January 2016.
9.Pierre Vogel
Pierre Vogel is one of the most influential German Islamists. He has converted to Islam and has been in Islamic promotional activity since 2006. He promotes his controversial views and beliefs among the young people by posting videos online. He believes that Hijab is mandatory to the Muslim women. Vogel has said that terror and violence against the innocent people is irreconcilable with Islam. According to the Institute for Political Education, Vogel extremely separates the Islamic behavior accompanied by good and right from the non-Islamic behavior accompanied by evil and vice. The German security officials believe that Vogel’s beliefs and teachings could direct some Young people to radical tendencies.
10.Son Lauve
Son Lauve is one of the Vogel’s companions. Born in a Catholic family, Lauve converted to Islam in about 2000, and a couple of years later he joined the Salafis. Up to 2008, Lauve was working at Monchengladbach city’s fire department. Afterwards he opened an Islamic shop. He, for some time, was the head of “Invitation for Paradise" society
Son Lauve says that he travelled several times in the past years to Syria for “providing humanitarian services.” Lauve has become famous in 2014 through social networks like Facebook. In association with his Salafi friends, Lauve founded in Wuppertal city a " canonical police", the aim of which was to advise the youths away from the " corruption places." Germany's attorney general has sued Lauve, accusing him of violating the freedom of gathering.
11.Tauhid Germany: former Millatu Ibrahim
Tauhid Germany is an alternative to Millat Ibrahim society. Both of them are banned in Germany, however, they still promote the Salafi beliefs online. Tauhid Germany has a website, as it is active on such social networks as YouTube and Facebook. The society uploads videos on YouTube which promote jihad and develop hatred of dissenters. The German jihadist Denis Cusprt who was killed in Syria in 2015 was a leader in Tauhid society. Cuspert joined ISIS along with other members of Milatu Ibrahim society.
12.Welfsburg Cell
About 20 jihadis from Wolfsburg city have travelled to Iraq and Syria in 2013 and 2014 to join ISIS for fighting. Currently, Ayoub and Ibrahim, two members of the group, are standing trial. They went to Syria through Turkey in summer 2014. At the court, Ibrhim has confirmed that he had embarked on extrimist thoughts under the influence of a person called Yassin, who is presently in Syria. "He was ready to answer any question, everybody respected him", said Ibrahim, expresing his praise for Yassin. If convicted, the two jihadis would get ten-year jail terms. So far, about 7 jihadis of Welfsburg Cell have been killed in Syria.
