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Are Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait Funding German Salafism?
by George Igler • December 21, 2016 at 5:30 am
The Sheikh Eid Bin Mohammad al-Thani Charitable Association and the Saudi Muslim World League are coordinating a "long-running strategy to exert influence" by Gulf States in Germany, according to a report authored by Germany's security agencies.
"This is about war, about children being indoctrinated, they are only in primary school and already fantasize about how when they grow up, they want to join the jihad, kill infidels." — Wolfgang Trusheim, Frankfurt State Security office.
"For quite some time we've had indications and evidence that German Salafists are getting assistance, which is approved by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, in the form of money, the sending of imams and the building of Koran schools and mosques." — Rolf Mützenich, German MP and Middle East expert.
Declining to assimilate in the West continues with the apparent, religiously mandated, preference to have the host countries become Islamic.
Salafism -- from salaf, "ancestors" or "predecessors" in Arabic -- urges the emulation of the first three generations of the Islamic prophet Mohammad's companions, and Mohammad himself. It is often deemed the most fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.
Security agencies in Germany claim that 9,200 such Islamic extremists currently call the country home. Another intelligence briefing cited by Süddeutsche Zeitung, warns that "the ideology already has 10,000 followers" and growing, in the country.
"Almost all of the German nationals who have travelled to Syria to fight for Islamic State became radicalized by Salafis, who target low-income Muslim youths in German cities," wrote the Los Angeles Times, adding that it is proving increasingly challenging for German intelligence officials, "to differentiate between those who identify intellectually with Salafism and those who espouse using violence to realize a radical version of Islam."
