Sven Kurenbach remembers that day very well. The day when the collapsing skyscrapers of the World Trade Center in New York flashed on television screens around the world. The day the Berlin policemen spontaneously gathered for a moment of silence. On September 11, 2001, when Islamist terrorists hijacked passenger planes and, turning them into deadly weapons, killed almost 3,000 people, Kurenbach was still a special forces inspector for the Berlin police. Today he is the main jihadist hunter in Germany.
At the time, Islamist terrorism was not yet the focus of German law enforcement. This topic was dealt with only by a dozen employees of the state security department. Since 2019, Kurenbach has been heading the new department “Islamistically Motivated Terrorism / Extremism” in the Federal Office for Criminal Affairs (BKA). About 500 police officers, experts, translators, analysts investigate the crimes of Islamists, monitor potential terrorists and try to prevent terrorist attacks.
Terrorist Emirate of Afghanistan?
Kurenbach is alarmed that the Taliban have re-established their dominance in Afghanistan two decades after the September 11, 2001 attacks. “I am afraid,” he says, “that the Taliban will tolerate the presence of various terrorist organizations in the country and that terrorist training camps, which used to be in the areas bordering Pakistan, will re-emerge here.”
Sven Kurenbach
In this regard, he points to half-forgotten organizations that even in their name are related to Germany, such as the “German Taliban Mujahideen”: “They already had the opportunity to shoot their advertising videos in places controlled by the Taliban.”
Kerstin Eppert has observed that some groups in Germany are already beginning to use the events in Afghanistan for propaganda purposes. “The Taliban takeover of Kabul was a gift for their supporters in Germany,” says an Islamist expert from Bielefeld. After the decline of IS in Syria, Islamists are now talking about a new “victory for Islam.”
More than 1000 potential terrorists and dangerous persons
Currently, the BKA lists 554 potential terrorists, of which 90 are imprisoned and 136 outside Europe, in particular in Idlib, which is controlled by Syrian rebels. In addition, another 527 dangerous persons appear on the lists, who, according to the police, can provide logistical or other support to terrorists.
In February 2016, one of the alleged potential terrorists was detained in Berlin
Thus, the total number of Islamists prone to crime has decreased by about a quarter compared to December 2019. Then, in response to an inquiry from the parliamentary faction of the liberals, the government named a figure of 679 religious fanatics.
Islamic scholar Michael Kiefer also notes that after the collapse of IS, militant forces began to give way to classical Islamist networks. But Kiefer also emphasizes that the topic of Islamist extremism will remain on the agenda.
This is evidenced by the annual reports of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. 20 years ago, the topic of Islamism was mentioned in a section that dealt with dangerous foreigners and their extremist inclinations. In the latest report, a separate chapter of 70 pages is devoted to the topic of Islamism and Islamist terrorism.
“War on Terror” as a factor in the radicalization of Islamists
The growth of Islamist movements around the world, including in Germany, is also caused by the way the “war on terrorism” declared 20 years ago by then US President George W. Bush was waged.
Prisoners at Guantanamo
The invasion of Iraq, contrary to international law, the resumption of torture under the embellished name of “enhanced interrogation techniques”, the detention of people for decades without a court decision, such as, for example, on the base of the US Navy Guantanamo, inadequately harsh actions of private paramilitary groups and militant Bush’s own “crusade” rhetoric has all been used by Islamist propaganda.
Political scientist Julian Junk of the Hessian Peace and Conflict Research Foundation (HSFK) in an interview with DW states: there were other reasons for them. “
Internet, propaganda, prevention
Junck points out other factors that have played a role in the past 20 years, in particular, technological innovations: “Today there are drones, algorithms on the Web, the ability to exchange encrypted information and quickly establish secret transnational ties, spread ideas … All this contributes to the subjective feeling increased mobilization of terrorists and, at the same time, increased fear of them. ” But new technologies, Yunk adds, also open up new opportunities to chase terrorists, prevent terrorist attacks and carry out preventive work.
Michael Kiefer gives the following example: after 2014, more than 1,000 Germans left Germany for Syria and Iraq on the territory of the terrorist caliphate to join IS. This came as a surprise to German law enforcement. Then, however, says Kiefer, the government began generously – at € 100 million or more a year – to fund prevention programs aimed primarily at debunking Salafism. Salafism is the most conservative interpretation of Islam and often serves as the ideological foundation for militant jihadists.
It is the Salafis who consider themselves the highest representatives of true Islam, standing above all other believers. For the Salafis, there is only black and white; in all those who disagree with them, they see mortal enemies and do not regard them as people. This kind of thinking, notes Michael Kiefer, makes Islamists akin to extreme right-wing extremists.
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