Posted on 08/29/2003 6:52:34 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
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.
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