SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A year ago, a SPIEGEL editor met a Salafist in Hannover. Following several meetings in Germany, he traveled with him to his new home in Egypt. But he could not have anticipated the danger he would encounter there.
It's still dark in Alexandria, and I can hear the Salafist breathing in the dark. He is tiptoeing across the room.
The man approaching my bed picked me up from the airport yesterday. His name is Dennis Rathkamp, and he is a 24-year-old auto mechanic who used to play guitar in his church confirmation class. He moved to Egypt a few weeks ago to learn how to become a good Muslim.
On this morning, my body is lying between Rathkamp and Mecca. He drops to his knees and lowers his forehead to the floor. It's 6:30 a.m., time for early prayers. I hear Rathkamp moving his lips silently. He promised me he would try to be quiet while praying.
I am lying in this bed in a stranger's apartment because I am searching for an answer to the question of what drives the Salafists, a group of people who are feared in Germany. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's domestic intelligence agency, estimates that 60 German Salafists emigrated to Egypt last year. Many chose the city of Alexandria as their new home, and they now live in the Mandara neighborhood in the north of the city.
Rathkamp says that he moved to Alexandria because he wants to learn the language of his prophet -- and because he could no longer endure the discrimination in Germany.
I met him when he was handing out Korans in the northern German city of Hannover last spring. I asked him if he would take me to his mosque, because I wanted to learn more about Islam. I accompanied him to Friday prayers many times after that. We drank tea together and had long conversations. Afterwards, he would drive me to the train station and give me pamphlets explaining women's role in Islam to take home to my girlfriend. » | Takis Würger | Friday, March 15, 2013
