“Salafism is a particularly rapidly growing and extremely worrying group within the extremist movement,” Hans-Georg Maassen, head of domestic intelligence, told a news conference as he presented his agency's 2012 annual report.
Radical Islamists in Germany numbered 42,550 in 2012, according to surveillance services, and the number of Salafists, who espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam, within the movement grew to 4,500 from 3,800 in a year, he said.
Maassen added that while not all Salafists are jihadists, it was clear that those who departed Germany for Syria or Egypt were there for that purpose.
“One can say that Salafism is an essential step towards jihadism or for people ready to conduct terrorist attacks,” Maassen said.
He also stressed that the number of extremist Islamists in Germany did not signify there were “42,500 potential terrorists” in the country.
Still, some 1,000 people including some Salafists are considered dangerous and 130 are seen as a particular threat and are monitored around-the-clock.
The intelligence report also showed that Egypt had replaced the Waziristan region of Pakistan as the main centre for the training of jihadists.
Syria is also a favoured destination. “We counted more than 60 people who left Germany to fight in Syria,” Maassen said. » | AFP | Tuesday, June 11, 2013
