Germany applies anti-Nazi laws in crackdown on Salafi Islamic groups
German police yesterday targeted two Salafi Islamic groups in what officials say is an investigation into efforts to overthrow the government.
By Robert Marquand, Staff writer / December 15, 2010German authorities hardened a crackdown on Islamic groups yesterday, raiding homes and schools that reportedly belong to adherents of fundamentalist Salafi Islam.
German officials said the preemptive raids, conducted under German anti-Nazi laws of association, were aimed at uncovering unconstitutional or separatist acts and not part of an international terror hunt.
The raids targeted the Islamic Cultural Center of Bremen, on the North Sea, along with a group calling itself Invitation to Paradise in two small northwest German cities. Invitation to Paradise’s leader has called for sharia, or Islamic law, to prevail one day but has specifically opposed using violence to impose it.
The beauty of this is that Germany saw the internal threat of Sharia loving Muslims, who are attempting to takeover within the law.
While some experts say police overreacted in conducting the raids, German officials have come under great pressure from local media and citizen groups to respond to some Muslim organizations that appear to resist joining mainstream German society.
“These groups are a problem for integration, even maybe for radicalization, though not necessarily for violent jihad. They are very orthodox and like to be separate but are not preaching but usually condemning violence,” says Alexander Ritzmann, a former Berlin member of parliament now with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels. “The problem is that some jihadis in Germany from before identified themselves as Salafi.”
Germany has been on high alert for possible terror attacks since mid-November. The Reichstag parliament building was partially closed to tourists for two weeks following a phone call from a disaffected South Asian jihadist who warned that Islamic militant groups were planning to attack high-profile targets in the nation.
Authorities said yesterday’s raids were unrelated to the phone warning.
The German Interior Ministry said it was investigating efforts by radicals to overthrow the government on theological Islamic grounds. In a statement issued Tuesday, the ministry said that, “For a well-fortified democracy, it is necessary and demanded, without waiting for the jihad to occur in the form of armed struggle, to take action against anti-constitutional organizations.”
A leader of Invitation to Paradise, Pierre Vogel, has been a lightening rod in Germany for some time now. He’s a German convert to Islam who appears on numerous TV shows to defend the concept of sharia.
In the past I have said that Muslims who use the freedoms of the West to advance their Sharia agenda, are even more dangerous than potentially violent Muslims. That pro-Sharia are Muslims to be looked upon as enemies of the state, just as Nazis were. Now that Germany has opened the door to preserving Western Civilization, lets see who will follow. I have a feeling this is just the beginning….
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