The head of Germany's intelligence service said the country could be a target of an Islamist attack similar to those carried out by a gunman in France two months ago. Heinz Fromm's comments, quoted in an interview with the top-selling Bild daily, follow a series of clashes in several German cities and towns between police and Salafi Muslims.
Fromm said, "The danger for Germany has unfortunately not decreased. And it is not by any means abstract. An attack like in France in March... is also conceivable here.", adding that Merah had had contact with Salafis before his shooting spree.
Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, gunned down seven people - three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi - before being killed himself by elite French police commandos in Toulouse on March 22.
Fromm cited a video made by a Berlin-based Salafi, a former rapper known as Denis C., which calls for jihad and praises Merah and Osama bin Laden. He said, "We must take (this video) seriously. It could well be that this video is taken as an inducement for attacks.
"With their intensive propaganda over the Internet, in the streets, in mosques and also at so-called Islam seminars, Salafi preachers are reaching especially young people who are more sensitive to this ideology. Almost all Islamist terrorists from Germany have been radicalized in this way."
Earlier this month, Germany said it was considernig a legal ban on Salafis after recent clashes. In the most serious violence, Salafis turned on police protecting far-right anti-Islam protesters during a regional election rally in the western city of Bonn, wounding 29 officers, two of them seriously. Authorities arrested 109 people, among them a 25-year-old man suspected of stabbing two police officers.
The anti-Islam protesters had infuriated the Salafis by waving banners showing cartoons of Mohammad. Local reports said 500-600 Salafis faced off with 30 far-right protesters.
In recent weeks, Salafis have been handing out thousands of Korans, translated into German, to infidels non-Muslims, sparking a controversy in Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger promised to identify all Salafis ready to use violence, so that officials could take swifter action in future.
Continued on Page 47
[Iran Press TV] France's first left-wing President in nearly 20 years, Francois Hollande has unveiled a government that includes three Muslim ministers.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The head of Germany's intelligence service said the country could be a target of an Islamist attack similar to those carried out by a gunman in France two months ago. Heinz Fromm's comments, quoted in an interview with the top-selling Bild daily, follow a series of clashes in several German cities and towns between police and Salafi Muslims.
