Germanistan is a new safe haven for fleeing Islamic State terror elements
German authorities’ treatment of the threat posed by terrorist elements arriving in Europe has recently raised questions about whether Germany is actually turning into “Germanistan.”
The designation is a reminder of the term “Londonistan” that was frequently used about two decades ago to refer to the British capital London when authorities there harboured Islamist figures known for their fanaticism.
A recent investigation entitled ‘Daesh Hunters: The Great Hunt’ broadcast by French TV Channel M6 highlighted the danger the approach adopted by some European authorities, notably in Germany, poses for national security in the continent.
After the defeat of ISIS by the international coalition, at least 500 alleged terrorist elements managed to flee through Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and then legally deceived security networks to settle in Germany and other European countries.
Observers of European affairs have voiced concerns that Germany has been too tolerant of these elements, who are often given short prison terms before being released and allowed to go on with their lives as if nothing is wrong.
Evidence of these individuals’ bloody past does not alarm the German police, who argue that those people have no connection to terrorism.
The French TV report focused on one former ISIS member named Samir who joined the terror group in 2014. Bloody videos, the report shows, reveal that the man had a hobby of playing football with his victims’ severed heads.
This “executioner” currently lives with his wife in a town on the German-French border and is getting ready to obtain a commercial driver’s license.
The threat posed by individuals like him is very serious, the report shows, and such lax security measures could lead to a repeat of the tragic incident that took place in 2016, in which Tunisian Anis Amri drove a stolen truck into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin. That attack killed 12 people of different nationalities and wounded more than 50 others.
There are still questions as to why the German police ignored accurate information provided by Morocco about the perpetrator of the Berlin attack.
In addition to Samir, the M6 report sheds light on another former ISIS member named Majid, who was involved with ISIS’s so-called finance ministry.
Majid today enjoys complete impunity, living in the Ruhr River basin in north-western Germany where he owns a large fleet of luxury cars and a halal massage salon. According to the report, this former ISIS operative acquired the business empire with the money he earned from transferring funds via Turkey for the benefit of senior ISIS leaders.
What is even more shocking is Germany’s failure to take notice of the Hamburg cell, from which Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, two suicide bombers who helped carry out the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, emerged.
German authorities’ strange attitude has left their international allies puzzled. These allies, among the most reliable in the fight against terrorism, do not understand Berlin’s manifest rupture with the multilateral security cooperation framework.
A concrete example of this rupture is Germany and Morocco’s divergence over Moroccan terror convict Mohamed Hajib, who has never renounced his allegiance to al-Qaeda.
The current situation in Germany is reminiscent of that of “Londonistan” before the bloody attacks that struck the British capital on July 7, 2005, in which 52 people were killed.
Imams convicted of terror offences like Abu Hamza al-Masri were then granted political asylum in the United Kingdom after claiming, without concrete evidence, that they were being persecuted in their own countries.
The British security services turned a blind eye to the alleged extremists, their propaganda and incitement activities in Britain, providing shelter and financial support to fundamentalists.
It remains unclear whether German federal services are failing to realise the serious threat posed by these extremists or attempting to strike deals with these radical elements on some operational collaboration.
Source: Arab Weekly
