The Islamist penetration of Europe
has occurred over decades. As the European colonial powers such as Britain, France,
Belgium and the Netherlands gradually withdrew from Asia, Africa
and the Middle East after World War II, at the
same time they opened their doors to large numbers of natives of these lands to
gain citizenship in their homelands. These new, mostly Muslim immigrants from
the former colonies had many among them indoctrinated to Islamism, either before
their migration or recruited in Europe later.[1]
In Europe we can observe all kinds of
Islamist activities. Violent Islamism is often referred as Jihadism or militant
Islamism. According to Edwin Bakker senior research fellow at the Netherlands
Institute Clingendael, until 9/11 the threat posed by Jihadi terrorism was,
however, often underestimated, overlooked and misunderstood in Europe. Even
after the 3/11 Madrid
trains bombings, the threat continued to be regarded as an external one.
Politicians, intelligence and security forces primarily focused on
international Jihadi networks operating from outside Europe
that were comparable to those responsible for 9/11. The subsequent killing of
Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and the 7/7 London
bombings confirmed that Jihadi terrorism also had a startling home-grown
dimension.[2] Olivier Roy Director of Research at the French National Board for
Scientific Research (CNRS) argues that “in Europe, the popular perception of
Jihadi terrorism has long been one of commandos coming from the Middle East to attack the West in reaction to the
conflicts that set aflame the region. Yet, an analysis of terrorists operating
in the West shows clearly that most of them are long established in Western
countries. They are either born in the West (Zacharias Moussaoui) or have come
at young age (Daudi), or in some exceptional cases, came as students (Mohammed
Atta). They do not have any particular social background that would explain
their radicalisation because of poverty or exclusion.[3]
The Islamist forces concerning Europe are of three types: (a) Wahhabis and the Muslim
Brotherhood, (b) Al-Qaeda and combat Salafi networks, (c) Iranian Intelligence
and Hezbollah cells.[4] At this point we have to mention that “Iran’s post-revolutionary record has
cemented its position in the State Department’s annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report as the most active state
sponsor of terrorism.”[5] The extent of Iran’s
continuing involvement in terrorism was exposed by The 9/11 Commission Report. The Commission found evidence of
Iranian links to Al-Qaeda. “In late 1991 or 1992” the Commission
reported, “discussions in Sudan between Al-Qaeda and Iranian operatives led to
an informal agreement to cooperation providing support-even if only
training-for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United
States.”[6]
By the mid-1990s, the Islamist
penetration of Western Europe was already
important. At the turn of the 21st century, governments and experts
realized that while Europe was politically
sleeping, the Islamist movements had infiltrated most of the countries of the
old continent.[7] Furthermore, conversion to Islam among native Europeans is on the rise.
Many converts live at peace within their native societies. A minority, however,
adopts radical interpretations of Islam and can pose a security risk.[8]
One of the declassified
key judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate: Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,
released in April 2006 states that: “The jihadists regard Europe as an
important venue for attacking Western interests. Extremist networks inside the
extensive Muslim diasporas in Europe facilitate recruitment and staging for
urban attacks as illustrated by the 2004 Madrid
and 2005 London
bombings.”[9]
Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo
It was about in the early 1990s, when wars and political
instability provided an opportunity for Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist
groups to infiltrate in the Balkans. Although the fact that there is a large number of
indigenous Muslims that are living in the Balkans, due to its poverty and
instability the region has not attracted a large number of Muslim immigrants who have actually been an important
source of recruits for the Islamist extremists in the Western Europe. In advance, some opposition to Islamist terrorism has also been strong among the Bosnians, who are called Bosnian Muslims and
the
Albanians,
the largest indigenous Muslim groups in the area of Balkans. These
groups are generally considered to be more secular in the outlook than
Muslims elsewhere. Most view themselves as a close part of Europe and they are also grateful for the
perceived U.S. role in the aspect of defending them against Serbian
aggression in the 1990s and for the continuing U.S. contribution to the security
of their countries in our days.[10] A number of key figures
associated with 9/11 plot, both planners and some of the hijackers themselves,
were veterans of the Bosnian jihad. At the time of the most spectacular
terrorist attacks in American history, scores of charities, ‘humanitarian’
organisations, and militant groups associated with international terrorist
syndicates continued to flourish in Bosnia. Bosnia had become one of Al-Qaeda
most important European assets. The radicalisation of Islam in Bosnia due to the war has also bred a new generation
of homegrown Jihadis-the so-called ‘white devils’ whose European
characteristics make them precious for infiltrating Europe without being
suspected. For Osama bin Laden and other terrorists masterminds, the strategic
value of Bosnia lies in its ‘human resources’ capacity for becoming an exporter
of jihad in the struggle to establish a global caliphate. According to
terrorism expert Dr Darko Trifunovic of the University
of Belgrade’s faculty of Security
Studies, “the biggest achievement of Al-Qaeda in Bosnia was not military. It was
ideological: when they created Samir-al Bosnari, the first Bosnian who died as Mujahideen,
in Chechnya
in 1994”.
The first suicide bombing in Europe carried out the next year in Rijeka, Croatia,
was also organized and prepared in Bosnia, maintains Trifunovic. Osama
bin Laden himself had been given a Bosnian passport.[11] Also the
mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre, radical Egyptian
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, was cooperating closely with the Sudanese Third World
Relief Association; bin Laden’s front charity for Bosnian jihad.[12] In September 1999,
the world would learn that Osama bin Laden himself had been given a Bosnian
passport, though the Sarajevo
government had tried to cover it up.[13] It would take the
cataclysmic events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent crackdown on
Islamic radicals in Bosnia,
to reveal just how deeply the Bosnian jihad had been connected to international
Islamist terrorism, in Europe, America,
and elsewhere. Indeed, the 9/11 attacks and the terrorist cell that had spawned
them in Hamburg, Germany,
had numerous links to Bosnia.
Mohammad Haydar Zammar, an Al-Qaeda operative suspected of having recruited
Mohammad Atta, the ringleader of the 19 hijackers of 9/11, into the Hamburg cell, had fought
there.[14] Nawaf al Hamzi and
Khalid al-Mihdhar, two hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed
into the Pentagon, were also veterans of the Bosnian jihad, as was Khalid
Sheikh Mohammad, the plot’s ultimate mastermind.[15]
Albania’s sudden reintroduction
in the international system after the fall of the communist regime in 1990,
presented a great opportunity for numerous outside parties. Before Communist
rule, 70% of Albanians were Muslim. Around a 55% of this subtotal was Sunnis.
The possibility to benefit from the combined factors of geostrategic location,
economic potential and religious appeal was not lost on Albania’s first non-Communist
leader, President Sali Berisha. Following his election in March 1992, Berisha
continued to develop strong ties with the United States and NATO. However, Albania’s
interaction with Muslim countries and organisations, evident since 1990,
increased dramatically as well. The second most powerful official in Albania,
Bashkim Gazidede, was a ‘devout Muslim’ and he used his extensive capabilities
as head of Albania’s national intelligence service, the State Information
Service (SHIK), to promote the local aspirations of foreign Islamic groups,
some of which had close ties to international Islamist terrorist groups. In
1992 Berisha made Albania
the first European member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).[16]
In 1994, President Berisha ensured a strong Islamic presence in Albania’s
nascent banking sector with the arrival of the Arab-Islamic Bank, ahead of
other Western banks.[17] Osama bin Laden
was the majority stockholder and founder of this bank.[18]The Arab-Albanian
Islamic Bank oversaw the construction of hundreds of mosques, gave scholarships
to Islamic universities abroad, and gave cash to poor Albanians –on the
condition that females of the family accepted wearing the chador (veiled outer
garment).[19]
Furthermore the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO), which
had openly thanked the Berisha regime for helping it, employed individuals such
as Mohammad al-Zawahiri, the younger brother of future Al-Qaeda leader Ayman
al-Zawahiri. Mohammad had been tasked by Bin Laden with finding ‘legitimate’
cover for Egyptian Islamic Jihad members inside the network of charities.[20] It would not be
until after 9/11 that Albania’s
links with international Islamist terrorism would be scrutinized more
carefully. Although almost forgotten now, in the immediate aftermath of the
attacks, U.S government sources disclosed a startling fact: that there was a
definite connection between 9/11 plotters and Albania-based Islamist
terrorists.[21]
According to
Dr Darko Trifunovic
“interest in the presence of radical Islam in Albania and its connection with the
authorities was reawakened on April 11, 2007, with the broadcast of a show ‘Fiks
Far’ on state television. The show publicized documents indicating that Abdul
Latif Saleh a close associate of Osama Bin Laden was given Albanian citizenship
in 1992 at the personal insistence of the then-President and present Prime
Minister Sali Berisha. Saleh, a Jordanian, owned construction companies “Mak Albania” and “Cement Albania,” which were used to
launder the money of Saudi businessman Yasin Qadi’s “Caravan” association in
Tirana. In 2000, Saleh was deported from Albania on suspicion of Al-Qaeda
connections, and his bank account in Tirana was frozen after an attempt to
withdraw 2.4 million Euros.”[22]
Since NATO’s
1999 intervention the issue of Kosovo has been presented mainly along ethnic
and national lines. This bitterly contested land, a historical province of Serbia but over 90 percent settled by
Albanians, is claimed by both peoples, who have long argued for their inherent
rights to ownership. The story of how foreign Islamists were able to fill in
the Kosovar society starts with the 1999 war which involved the participation
of mujahedin in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). However, it was only after
the war that the Islamists began to make inroads. The methods were the same as
in Bosnia:
through charities, banks, nongovernmental organisations, and religious
societies. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
the Emirates, and other states began major construction of mosques, staffing
them with radical preachers. At the same time, hundreds of young Albanians were
sent to universities in the Islamic world, creating a new generation of trained
and educated imams to spread the Wahhabi doctrine back in Kosovo.[23] Important details on Islamist
subversion in Kosovo have emerged from the testimony of a former security
officer for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
Thomas Gambill, a former marine and one of the few willing to speak openly
about the issue. As early as fall 1999, says Gambill, reliable Albanian sources
were providing solid information that “the Saudis were increasing in strength through
new NGOs. They were playing on nationalism, urging the poorer people to ‘run
out the KFOR (Kosovo Force-NATO) like you did the Serbs’ They also handed out
leaflets with anti-American slogans, which the pro-American Albanians ignored…
the main actor, we were told, was the Saudi Red Crescent Society, which handed
out food, clothing, supplies and religion, the same pattern as in Bosnia.”[24] “At the same time money for jihad
continued to flow into Kosovo, courtesy
of the KLA’s previous Islamist sponsor in Britain, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad,
the head of bin Laden’s International Islamic Front and founder of the Al-
Muhajiroun brigade whose participation had been, at the very least, tolerated
by British Intelligence during the 1998-1999 war.”[25] In April 2000, London’s
Sunday Telegraph reported that the KLA’s “divinely inspired” struggle against
the Serbs was being extended through “fundraising events…being held by mosques
and internet groups” in Britain,
subsidized partially by a wave of prescription fraud among poor British Muslims
exploiting the National Health Service. Britain’s socialized health care
allowed them to obtain expensive drugs almost for free, and then sell them “on
the black market to raise funds for Jihad struggles including the one in Kosovo.”[26]
Spain
The Muslim population in Spain
is one of the largest in Europe (in total
numbers) and it numbers 1,021,000 people and constitutes 2.3% of the total
population of the country.[27]
Islamists in
Spain are stepping up calls for an ‘Andalusia Spring’ to reclaim ‘occupied’
Spain for Islam, in the same way they believe they have the right to reclaim
all of present day Israel, which had once been under the rule of the Ottoman
Empire. Andalusia, a region in southern Spain, derives its name from Al-Andalus,
the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France that were
occupied by Islamic conquerors from 711 A.D to 1492.Many Muslims
believe -- based on the Islamic precept that all territories once occupied by
Muslims must forever remain under Muslim domination -- that all territories
they lost during the Christian Reconquista of Spain still belong to them, and
that they have every right to return and establish their rule there.[28]
According to
a Madrid-based business newspaper Intereconomía, internet websites and online
discussion forums frequented by Islamists and Jihadists have in recent months
been brimming with calls for the Islamization of Spain. The newspaper reported
that Islamists are
accusing Spain of ‘erasing’
the country's Muslim history and are calling for Spain to be brought under Islamic Shariah law. They are also using
internet discussion forums and chat rooms to promote Muslim historical
revisionism and sentimentalism in an effort to recruit followers, especially
among the young.[29] Moreover, a newly leaked secret report prepared by Spain's National Intelligence Centre (CNI),
published by the Madrid-based El País newspaper on July 31, 2011, says
the Spanish government is struggling to stop the flow of tens of millions of
dollars to Islamic groups in Spain
from Kuwait, Libya, Morocco,
Oman, Qatar, the United
Arab Emirates and above all Saudi Arabia.[30] The CNI report states: “The
financing is having negative consequences for multicultural coexistence in
Spain, such as the emergence of parallel societies and ghettos, Islamic courts
and police that operate outside of Spanish jurisprudence, removing girls from
schools, forced marriages, etc.”[31] Furthermore, “the leaked CNI
document says Kuwait
is one of the worst offenders. Through the Society for the Revival of Islamic
Heritage (RIHS), the Kuwaiti government has funded the construction of mosques
in the Spanish municipalities of Reus and
Torredembarra (Catalonia),
from which Islamic preachers are ‘spreading a religious interpretation that opposes
the integration of Muslim into Spanish society and promotes the separation and
hate towards non-Muslim groups. In the medium term, the RIHS plans to open a
delegation in Spain.’
In June 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the RIHS for bankrolling
Al Qaeda.”[32]
The CNI document illustrates clearly the fact that Islamists operating
both inside and outside Spain
desire to restore an Islamic state ruled by Shariah
and they not necessarily use violent means in order to achieve this goal.
Spain is also considered to
be an
important transit point and a logistical base for various Islamist terrorist
organisations operating in the area of Western Europe. It is true that the government of Spain
and its citizens were also concerned that their country has been a principal
target of Islamist extremism. Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, who was one of the most powerful
Islamist preachers in Saudi Arabia, wrote a letter to the then President George
W. Bush on October 15 2001-after the 9/11 attacks- in which he explained:
“Imagine Mr. President, we still weep over Andalusia (today’s Spain) and
remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to our religion, culture and
honour! We are dreaming of regaining it.”[33] In March 11, 2004 three days
before the Spanish national elections Islamist terrorists attacked the commuter train
system
in Madrid and left nearly 200
people dead.The official
investigation held by the Spanish Judiciary determined the attacks were
directed by an Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist cell although no direct al-Qaeda
participation (only "inspiration") has been established.
Spanish Muslims who did not carry out the attacks but who sold the explosives
to the terrorists were also arrested. “We think that the Spanish government
could not tolerate more than two, maximum three blows, after which it will have
to withdraw as a result of popular pressure.”[34]
Lorenzo Vidino a
European terrorism expert states that: “The Madrid bombings made it clear that Islamist
terrorists are not only bloodthirsty criminals willing to kill innocent
civilians but also savvy interpreters of Western politics. Choosing to strike
right before the elections, the terrorists correctly predicted that Spanish
voters would blame the unprecedented carnage on their government’s support of
the USA led war in Iraq.
The Aznar government’s insistence on blaming ETA without even looking at the
evidence only played into the hands of the bombers, as many Spaniards perceived
this behavior as an attempt to cover-up.”[35] Al-Qaeda scored a master coup: It played
Jihadism in Spanish politics and won.[36]
“In the
hours and days following the bombings in Madrid,
contemporary society—its commentators, politicians, and voters—processed the
crime mainly in the most contemporary way: as a tragedy and then as an election
story. The ruling conservative party, which was leading narrowly in the polls,
despite having made the unpopular move of sending a small contingent of troops
to Iraq, seemed to prevaricate about the evidence for political advantage. It
refused to recognize the signs of an Al Qaeda-style operation—the high level of
coordination and sophistication of the attack, the claims of responsibility,
the discovery of a van carrying detonators and a tape with verses of the
Koran—and suggested, instead, that the bombings were the work of the Basque
separatist group, ETA. The conservative Prime Minister, José María Aznar,
telephoned El País and other Spanish news outlets to insist that it was ETA;
his diplomats worked overtime to push a resolution through the UN Security Council
blaming ETA; the interior minister, Ángel Acebes, denounced any speculation
that Al- Qaeda might have been involved as “an attempt by malicious people to
distort information.” And yet, as Keith B. Richburg, of the Washington Post,
reported, the Spanish intelligence agency suspected al Qaeda from the
beginning.”[37]
Ayman al-Zawahiri then Osama bin Laden’s deputy in the Al-Qaeda
leadership in a tape released on 20 September 2007, referred to the global
aspirations of the Jihadist movement: “O, our Muslim nation in the Maghreb
(North Africa), zone for deployment for battle and jihad! The return of Andalusia to Muslim hands is a duty for the Islamic
nation in general and for you in particular. You will not be able to achieve
this except by purifying the Islamic Maghreb of the French and the Spanish who
have once again returned, after your fathers and grandfathers had expelled them
unsparingly in the way of Allah.”[38]
Historical and
geopolitical grievances give Islamists reason to hate Spain; its support for the war in Iraq
is a minor factor. The Madrid strikes represented the first strike
on European soil by Moroccans Islamists a network that had been underestimated
and overlooked by European authorities.[39] According to the French antiterrorism
magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguire “The Moroccans are much more important than we
thought. They have significant financial and logistic cells. And they turn out
to be more structured and organized than other networks.” Authorities in Spain cooperated closely
with the U.S. so as to investigate and
prosecute the Islamist terrorists and therefore to prevent from future attacks. They also worked hard so as to disrupt
terrorist acts which possibly were directed against the US interests.[40]
Yet again, in May 2004 only two months after the Madrid
bombings, the Spanish press reported that Al-Qaeda was planning a chemical
attack against the U.S.
naval base in Rota. Information about the
attack plans allegedly came from an Algerian militant who had been extradited
to France from Syria.
The Algerian was said to have been a close associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.[41]
Germany
70% of the Muslim
population of Germany
is of Turkish origin. Turkish immigration to Germany began in the 1960s in
response to a German labour shortage. While these workers were expected to
leave Germany
after their work was completed, half of them ended up staying in the country.
At first the immigration was predominantly men, but they were eventually
followed by their wives and families.[43]
Among the Muslim
population of Germany live and operate many Islamists. Ibrahim el-Zayat, the
head of an extremist Munich-based organisation called The Islamic Community of
Germany, told a meeting of fellow Muslims that it is still premature to strike
against the Jews and infidels in this country. However,
at the lecture at a community Centre in Neukoeln, Berlin,
he went on to assert: ‘But sooner or later we will strike against the enemies
of Allah and Islam. We have to wait. Many Germans are converting to Islam,
especially friends from the NPD [a neo-Nazi party].’
El-Zayat was born in 1968 in Marburg, Germany,
to an Egyptian imam and a German mother. He owns a construction company and
receives huge sums of money from the Saudis to build mosques in Germany
and in other European countries. He is an aggressive
Muslim fundamentalist and has connections to various Islamists and terrorist
organisations across the world. He is currently being prosecuted in Germany
for supporting radical organisations. El-Zayat is typical of most Islamist
activists in Germany.
In their schools and community Centres, Muslim organisations incite hatred and
violence against Jews and Christians. In public, however, and before the media,
they deny preaching violence. El-Zayat, Gharaballi and the majority of radical
Islamist imams, and officials of Muslim organisations receive big honorariums
from the Saudis. According to a study by Bielefeld
University, over 30% of the Muslims living
in Germany
are radicalized. They reject the German Constitution and hope to establish the Shariah. [44]
Another illustrative
example of the strong presence of Islamists in Germany is the German convert
Pierre Vogel, a former professional boxer who converted to Salafi Islam in
2001.[45] “Vogel received his religious
training in an Islamic school in Saudi Arabia. Through nationwide
lecture tours and the creation of several websites, he has reached out to very
religious young German Muslims, as well as to young non-Muslim Germans with
identity problems.”[46] Adherents of Wahhabism like Pierre
Vogel, alias Abu Hamza, call themselves "Salafi" in claiming they
emulate the prominent adherents of early Islam.[47]
“Vogel's worldview
embodies a rigid distinction between Islamic and "un-Islamic"
behaviour. The strict division between "the bad" and "the
good" appeals to some young Muslims, because they are promised a clear
orientation in their everyday lives and identification with a like-minded
community. Although Vogel rejects the use of violence in the cause of Islam,
the German authorities see his Manichean outlook – the harsh separation of
"bad" and "good" – as dangerous, because of its
radicalizing effects on the very religious and the confused. The internet is
his main stage. His sites have gained five million hits in one and a half
years, a matter of which he is proud.”[48]
David Perl an expert
from the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs argues that “Germany has been increasingly
forced to confront home-grown Islamist terrorism, the threat of radicalized
converts to Islam, and the threat of non-integrated Muslim immigrants. In 2003,
Iranian-backed Hezbollah was found to have identified Israeli, Jewish, and
American facilities in Germany
as terror targets. Which are the prominent radical Islamist groups operating in
Germany?
The Islamic Jihad Union
(IJU), one of the most significant threats to German national security, is a
Sunni terrorist organisation closely associated with al-Qaeda. IJU is well
known to the German public due to frequent video threats published on the
Internet and on television.
Hizb ut-Tahir al-Islami
(HT) is a clandestine, radical Islamic political organisation that operates in
40 countries around the world including Germany, which was banned in 2003.
Prior to its ban, HT operated mainly in college towns in Germany, and orchestrated a terrorist attack in
2006, when two terrorists placed two suitcases containing bombs (which failed
to detonate) on regional trains in Germany.
The Islamic Centre in
Hamburg (IZH), which was under the direct guidance of Iran's Ayatollah Khameini between 1978 and 1980,
is considered to be the most important Hezbollah base in Germany and is the institution
most, engaged in exporting the Islamic Revolution of Iran. It has branches in Berlin, Munich, Muenster,
and Hanover, pointing to the ability of
Hezbollah to launch attacks within Germany at any time in line with
directives from the Iranian Supreme Leadership.
Millî Görüş, a radical
Islamic group associated with Islamist parties in Turkey,
is anti-Western, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, and opposes integration into
Western society by the 2.5 million Turkish immigrants and their families in Germany.
Yakup Akbay of the Fathi Mosque in Munich told
Turkish television in 2007: ‘When Europe, as
we hope, will be Islamized, the credit has to be given to the Turkish
community. That's the reason for us doing the groundwork.’”[49]
In December 2000, German
police arrested four Algerians, who, according to German verdicts, planned and
prepared a bomb attack against revellers at the Christmas market outside Notre
Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg. The Algerians were associated with people
belonging to Al-Qaeda and the GSPC (Salafist Group
for Preaching and Combat) and one of them had been associated with the GIA
(Armed Islamic Group of Algeria)
network in Lille France, in the mid-1990s. They had
received training in the Khalden training complex in Khowst, Afghanistan.
The operation was not planned as a suicide mission; the terrorists made
arrangements to escape to Algeria
via London
after the bomb attack. The plot to launch an attack in Strasbourg was the first attempt by more
globally oriented Jihadis to execute a major attack on European soil.[50]
In June 2003, according
to German press reports, police detected a German-based terrorist cell planning
and preparing an attack against the French vacation islands of Reunion. According to police, the alleged terrorist cell
was headed by a long-time Al-Qaeda associate Christian Ganczarski, a native
German of Polish origin living in the German city of Duisburg. Reportedly, one of Ganczarski’s
Moroccan accomplices made a trip to the islands in order to seek out potential
targets.[51]
In Germany,
the threat from Islamist terrorism remained high in 2006, according to an annual
report published by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
(BfV) the German Security Service.[52]
This report mentioned that Islamist militants are increasingly setting their
sights on Germany and view
the country as an "operational area"
and also that the Islamists regard Germany
as a "crusader" and as an
ally of the United States
and Israel.
Moreover, by the end of year 2007, there were about 30 nationwide active
Islamist organisations.
“On September 4, 2007, the German security services arrested three men
for plotting car bomb attacks in Germany
targeting U.S.
military base at Ramstein and pubs and nightclubs frequented by Americans. Two
of the three were German-born converts to Islam.”[53]
German police boarded a
Dutch airliner at Cologne-Bonn
Airport on the morning of
26 September 2008 and arrested two men suspected of planning to take part in
terrorist attacks. The two terrorist suspects – identified as 23 year-old
‘Abdirazak B’ (a Somali) and ‘Omar D’, a 24-year-old German citizen born in
Somalia – were apparently on their way to Pakistan via Amsterdam, allegedly in
order to receive training in one of the terrorist camps near the
Pakistan-Afghan border. The pair, who are also believed to be linked to the
‘Islamic Jihad Union’, had apparently been under surveillance for several
months by the German Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Crime Office
(BKA). Authorities said they moved to arrest the two men after searching their
apartments and finding notes indicating their intention to fight a ‘holy war’.[54]
The German Jihadists, as elsewhere, are not interested in fixing the
socioeconomic conditions of their neighbourhoods, nor are they frustrated
because of these conditions. They are inspired by the Islamist ideology,
indoctrinated through its literature and they seek to ally themselves with the
major terrorist networks.[55]
[1] Phares W.(2008) The Confrontation: Winning the War
against Future Jihad, New York:
Palgrave MacMillan
[2] Bakker E.
(2008) “ Jihadi Terrorists in Europe and Global Salafi Jihadis” in Coolsaet
R.(ed.) Jihadi Terrorism and the
Radicalisation Challenge in Europe, London:
Ashgate
[3] Roy O.
(2008) “Al-Qaeda: A True Global movement” in Coolsaet R.(ed.) Terrorism and the Radicalisation Challenge
in Europe, London:
Ashgate
[4] Phares W. (2008) The Confrontation: Winning the War against
Future Jihad, New York:
Palgrave MacMillan
[5] U.S
Department of State. “ Patterns of Global Terrorism-2003” Aril 29,2004. Available
from: http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2003/31644.htm
[Accessed 2 December 2009]
[6] Clawson
P. & Rubin M. (2005) Eternal Iran:
Continuity and Chaos. New York:
Palgrave MacMillan
[7] Bawer, B. (2006) While
Europe Slept: How radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, New York: Doubleday
[8] Uhlmann
M.(2008) European Converts to Terrorism,
Philadelphia: Middle East
Quarterly, Vol. 15, No.3, Summer 2008
[9] Nomikos J.
and Burweila A. (2009) Another Frontier
to Fight: International Terrorism and Islamic Fundamentalism in North Africa. London:
International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence(Routledge), 22:1,
March 2009.
[10] Vidino L.(2006) Al-Qaeda
in Europe. The new Battleground of
International Jihad, New York:
Prometheus Books
[11] Deliso, C. (2007) The Coming Balkan Caliphate. The
Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West, Westport Conn.:
Praeger Security
[12] Pomfret,J.(1996) Bosnian
Officials involved in Arms Trade Tied to Radical
States, Washington Post, September 22 1996.
[13] Bin Laden was granted Bosnian passport
Agence France-Presse, September 24, 1999
[14] Deliso, C. (2007) The Coming Balkan Caliphate. The
Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West, Westport Conn.:
Praeger Security
[15] The National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, Chapter 5, Al-Qaeda aims at the American Homeland,
available at: www.9-11commission.gov
[Accessed 1 July 2009]
[16] Deliso, C. (2007) The Coming Balkan Caliphate. The
Threat of Radical Islam to Europe and the West, Westport Conn.:
Praeger Security
[17] Halsell
G.(1994) Albania and the Muslim World, The Washingthon
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[18] Burr M. &
Collins R. (2006) Alms for Jihad: Charity
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[19] Gustincich
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[20] Deliso C. (2007) The Coming Balkan Caliphate. The
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[21] Gertz B. ‘Hijackers connected to Albanian terrorist
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[22] Available
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[23] Deliso C.(2007) The
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[24] Ibid
[25] Ibid
[26] Bamber D.
and Hastings
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[27] Available
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[28] Available
at: http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2744/andalusia-spring
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[29] Ibid
[30]Available at:
http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2320/financing-jihad-in-spain
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[31] Ibid
[32] Ibid
[34] Rotella S. Terrorists at the Table; Militants in Europe
Blend Political Sophistication and Crude Violence to Influence Events, as the
Bombings in Madrid Show, Los
Angeles Times, March 6, 2004
[35] VidinoL. (2006)
Al-Qaeda in Europe.
The new Battleground of International Jihad. New York: Prometheus Books
[36] Phares W.(2008) The
Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad, New York: Palgrave MacMillan
[37] Available
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[39] Vidino L.(2006) Al-Qaeda in Europe.
The new Battleground of International Jihad. New York: Prometheus Books
[41] Nesser
P.(2008) Chronology of Jihadism in
Western Europe 1994-2007: Planned, Prepared and Executed Terrorist attacks,
Studies in Conflict &Terrorism, Vol. 31, Issue 10, 2008
[42] Available
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[43] Available
at: http://www.euro-islam.info/country-profiles/germany
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[44] Available
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[45] Available
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[46] Ibid
[47] Ibid
[48] Ibid
[49] Available
at: http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=379&PID=0&IID=2938&TTL=The_Growing_Threat_of_Radical_Islamic_Groups_in_Germany
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[50] Nesser
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Western Europe 1994-2007: Planned, Prepared and Executed Terrorist attacks,
Studies in Conflict &Terrorism, Vol. 31, Issue 10, 2008
[51] Ibid
[53] Uhlmann
M.(2008) European Converts to Terrorism,
Philadelphia: Middle East
Quarterly, Vol. 15, No.3, Summer 2008
[54] Imig Hanna-Caroline, Germany caught in the terrorism debate.
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[55] Ritzmann
A.(2007) “The Fairytale of the Poor and Angry Terrorists”, American Institute for
Contemporary German Studies Advisor