Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Europe

Hundreds of German police swoop on members of banned Islamic group

2021-02-26

[IsraelTimes] Raids in Berlin and across Brandenburg target Jama’atu Berlin organization, said to have called for armed jihad and terrorist attacks on civilians

Hundreds of German coppers conducted coordinated raids early Thursday in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg in the investigation of an organization banned over allegations of Islamic extremism.

Some 850 police, including SWAT teams, were involved in the raids of apartments linked to members of the organization known as Jama’atu Berlin, the state Interior Ministry said.

The organization, whose name translates literally as the "Berlin Group," was banned by Berlin’s state Interior Minister Andreas Geisel ahead of the raids on the grounds it was a "very radical" group that followed the Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group’s ideology.

"The ban is another clear signal to all religious holy warriors," Geisel said. "We will fight the roots of terror. We will tolerate no place where terror is preached and the so-called Islamic State is glorified."

Authorities said the organization espoused an anti-Semitic ideology and advocated "armed jihad and terrorist attacks on civilians." The raids were meant to secure its assets and look for evidence, authorities said, and no arrests were announced.

The organization consisted of two groups — one of women and one of men — who would meet regularly in private homes and parks, and spread their ideology over the internet and with flyers in public spaces, authorities said.

Update from Deutsche Welle at 1:00 p.m. ET:

Berlin's Senate has announced on Twitter that it has banned the "jihadist-Salafist association Jama'atu Berlin," also known as Tauhid Berlin.

The raids targeted the districts of Reinickendorf, Moabit, Wedding and Neukölln.

WHAT IS THE RADICAL GROUP ACCUSED OF?
A statement from the Senate said Jama'atu Berlin had propagated "a martyr cult," supported the "Islamic State," rejected the German constitution and called for sharia as the sole legitimate law.

The group is believed to have about 20 members, some of whom had attracted attention in the past by handing out leaflets in parts of Berlin.

LINK TO BERLIN CHRISTMAS MARKET ATTACKER
Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel told a news conference the unregistered association had been under surveillance for two years.

The Tagesspiegel newspaper reported that several of the group's followers previously attended the Fussilet Mosque, which was closed down in 2017. Anis Amri, the Tunisian national who carried out an attack on a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 killing 12 people, also frequented the mosque, according to authorities.

The number of Salafists in Germany rose to a record high of 12,150 in 2019, according to the domestic intelligence agency.

Posted by:trailing wife

00:00