2024-09-03 21:28:30
The shock after the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen is great. But the danger has existed for many years. A guest article by Ruben Gerczikow.
The people of Solingen wanted to celebrate their hometown for three days. The city had planned a diverse program with numerous events. Solingen wanted to celebrate its founding 650 years ago with the “Festival of Diversity”. But the happy, exuberant celebrations were abruptly interrupted. On Friday, a man stabbed several people in the crowded market square.
He murdered three people and injured eight others. It is the second suspected Islamist attack in Germany within a few months. On May 31, 2024, a 25-year-old Afghan citizen and possible Taliban supporter fatally injured police officer Rouven Laur with a knife.
Less than 24 hours passed before the Internet was full of speculation, discussions and political condolences. In the meantime, a 26-year-old Syrian has turned himself in to the police, the Federal Prosecutor General has taken over the investigation, and the “Islamic State” has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack.
- Comment on the debate following the attack in Solingen: Trouble with announcement
For the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and other right-wing and right-wing extremist groups, the case is clear. The Islamist threat is solely the fault of German migration policy and the so-called refugee crisis of 2015. Many discussions about Islamism in this country focus so much on the year 2015 that some aspects are generally left out – either deliberately or at least this is accepted.
Islamism in Germany is by no means a phenomenon of the past decade, as a look at the most famous terrorist attack in the world shows. Several terrorists involved in the attacks of September 11, 2001 lived and studied in Hamburg. 9/11 was planned in Afghanistan, but the Hamburg terror cell around Mohammed Atta played a central role.
Peter R. Neumann is a professor of security studies at King’s College London and observes the developments in Islamic terrorism. In particular, with regard to the “war on terror” announced by US President George W. Bush, he sees a development that also appears to be relevant for later attack plans in Germany. After the start of the Iraq War in 2003, more and more second or third generation Muslims born in Europe joined Islamist groups. As did people who had converted from other religions.
Ruben Gerczikow is an author and studied journalism and communication sciences. At the beginning of 2023, his volume of reports “We won’t let ourselves be defeated – Young Jewish politics in Germany”, written together with Monty Ott, was published by Hentrich & Hentrich.
Neumann speaks of a “Europeanization” because the Islamist groups are primarily concerned with questions of European politics and not just the Muslim world. In 2007, for example, the security authorities in Germany arrested two German converts and two men of Turkish origin who had founded the so-called “Sauerland Group.” The cell of the “Islamic Jihad Union” planned car bomb attacks.
Almost ten years after 9/11, on March 2, 2011, the first Islamist attack in Germany with fatalities occurred at Frankfurt Airport. The terrorist, who was born in Kosovo, murdered two US soldiers and injured two other people. He is said to have been in contact with the later IS terrorist and gangster rapper Denis Cuspert, alias “Deso Dogg”.
Tradition of Islamist ideologies in Germany
From 2011, 1,150 people traveled to Syria or Iraq for Islamist reasons. Most of the departures took place between 2013 and 2015, according to a response from the German government. At that time, Pierre Vogel, the Salafist preacher and convert with the Cologne dialect, was one of the best-known faces of radical Islam in Germany, which also gave him plenty of airtime on German talk shows.
There is also a tradition of Islamist ideologies in Germany before 2015, although a large number of Islamist attacks have been recorded across the country since 2015. This is something to keep in mind in current debates. It is also important to remember that not all Islamism is the same. For example, there are various ideological differences between IS, al-Qaida, Hamas and the Taliban. Nevertheless, Islamist terror has changed in recent years, but it is certainly not a new phenomenon in Germany.