JihadismGulf States supporting fundamentalist Islamic activity in Germany
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar have been supporting fundamentalist preachers and groups in Germany, German foreign and domestic intelligence agencies said Monday. Religious organizations from those three countries, some connected to these countries’ governments, have been sending preachers to Germany as well as financing the construction of mosques and schools. The German security services believe that there is a connection between the increase in Gulf States-funded fundamentalist activity in German, and the arrival in Germany of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from Syria. The fear is that these refugees offer the Salafists easy targets for recruitment.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar have been supporting fundamentalist preachers and groups in Germany, German foreign and domestic intelligence agencies said Monday. Religious organizations from those three countries, some connected to these countries’ governments, have been sending preachers to Germany as well as financing the construction of mosques and schools.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that the goal of the fundamentalist religious groups in supporting Salafist missionary activities, is to spread the ultraconservative version of Islam in Germany.
The German authorities say that there are currently 9,200 people involved in Salafist-related activity in Germany. The intelligence and law-enforcement agencies worry that the Gulf States-funded Salafist missionary activity would increase the numbers of Germans who follow the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.
The German security services believe that there is a connection between the increase in Gulf States-funded fundamentalist activity in German, and the arrival in Germany of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees from Syria. The fear is that these refugees offer the Salafists easy targets for recruitment.
Possible government ties
The Local notes that the German government has urged the Saudi government to stop supporting radical Islamists in Germany, but that Saudi Arabia has insisted that its religious organizations are a “stronghold” against ISIS.
The German intelligence services dismiss that Saudi clam that the religious organizations are independent, saying that the religious groups behind the missionary activity in Germany “are closely linked with state posts in their countries of origin.”
The German intelligence agencies, however, stressed that there was no evidence that the religious groups support “violent Salafist structures and networks.”
Influence in schools and real estate
The German security agencies named three religious organizations active in Germany which are supported by states in the Gulf: the Shaykh Eid Charity Foundation from Qatar; the Muslim World League from Saudi Arabia, and the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) from Kuwait.
The German domestic intelligence service found that in the case of RIHS there was “essentially no difference” between its missionary work and the spreading of jihadist ideology.
In 2012, the group has bought into a German real estate firm, and used the firm to build a Salafist center in the southern German town of Fellbach. The center was planned as a platform from which the group could expand its missionary operations in southern Germany, but the town passed a measure blocking RIHS from using the building for the purpose of spreading religious ideology.
The united States has banned RIHS in 2008 on suspicion that it was supporting terrorist organizations.
In recent weeks, the German authorities have conducted several raids on offices of different Salafist organizations. Last month, the German Interior Ministry banned the Salafist group True Religion, which spread fundamentalist theology in German city centers.
