Berlin Knife Attack, Wave of Arrests Underlines German Radicalization Threat

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A known radical Islamist stabbed and wounded a policewoman in Berlin on September 17, and was subsequently shot dead (DW, September 17). The attacker, a 41-year-old ethnic Kurdish Iraqi man called Rafik Mohamad Yousef, had previously been convicted by a German court in 2008 of being a member of Ansar al-Islam, a jihadist group comprised mainly of Iraqi Kurds, and for plotting to kill the Iraqi prime minister on a visit to Berlin; he was released in 2011 (Berlin Morgenpost, September 17; Rudaw, September 18). The precise motives for the attack, and Yousef's most recent affiliations, are not yet known.

A few days after the stabbing attack, on September 22, police carried out eight counter-terrorism raids, focusing mainly on suspects in the Berlin area (DW, September 22). Among those arrested was a 51-year-old Moroccan man suspected of inciting others to join the Islamic State. Although the police said that the raids were not related to the earlier knife attack, the developments indicate the increasing threat to Germany from jihadists and the authorities' increasing efforts to monitor radical Islamist circles and to disrupt groups actively involved in supporting jihadist groups abroad or plotting attacks at home.

Underlining this trend, also on September 22, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz-BfV), Germany's internal security organization, said that the number of radical Salafists had increased to 7,900, up from an estimated 7,500 in June. In addition, BfV President Hans-Georg Maassen stated:

We are very concerned that Islamists in Germany are trying, under the cover of humanitarian assistance, to exploit the situation of the refugees for their own ends and to proselytize and recruit among asylum-seekers (The Local, September 22).

In addition, Maassen provided updated figures on the number of German foreign fighters abroad, saying that an estimated 740 people had left Germany to join jihadists in Syria and Iraq; around one-third of these individuals have returned to Germany, and about 120 have been killed. The government has also begun prosecuting those who have returned from Syria, particularly those involved with the Islamic State. For instance, also in September, the authorities charged a 25-year-old German individual, known legally as "Nils D," for traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State in October 2013, and subsequently receiving firearms and explosives training (Berlin Kurier, September 9). He returned to Germany in November 2014, and was arrested two months later (DW, January 10).

Meanwhile, in the Middle East itself, Germany has continued to provide some of the most significant European support for forces fighting against the Islamic State (particularly the Kurds), most recently training Iraqi peshmerga forces on mitigating chemical weapon attacks (Rudaw, September 18). This came after the government confirmed instances of the Islamic State using mustard gas against Kurdish fighters. Adding urgency to both the German government's efforts in Iraq and its actions against the growing number of Islamist radicals at home is the flow of migrants and refugees expected into Germany in the coming months and years from mainly Muslim parts of the Middle East; an estimated 800,000 people will arrive this year (Der Spiegel, August 31). To date, Germany has generally been more successful in integrating Muslim immigrants than other European countries. However, this is partly because up until now the vast majority of German Muslims have generally originated in relatively more developed countries with a long history of secularism, such as Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan and a range of Balkan states; the flow of new migrants from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere, including states without a similarly strong secular tradition, will undoubtedly pose new challenges to the German government, including in the sphere of political radicalization.