Salafist police officer suspended in Germany

Authorities connect suspect with radical group after he registers for permit to hand out Salafist literature.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JPOST CORRESPONDENT
German Muslims hand out english-language Korans 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz)
German Muslims hand out english-language Korans 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz)
BERLIN – Authorities in the west German city of Duisburg suspended an officer who is a member of a growing radical movement of Islamists in the Federal Republic because he misused his access to confidential domestic intelligence information in connection with the observation of the Salafi group.
“It is a very, very serious case,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to a report last week in the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ).
The suspended officer is named Ali K. German media frequently do not release the last names of suspects. The WAZ reported that Ali K’s police functions could have been compromised because he was supposed to monitor Salafists. Ali K. had contacts to radical Islamic preachers who advocate hate, the newspaper said.
The radical group of German Salafists is considered as rejecting the democratic structure of the Federal Republic and propagating violence against non-Muslims, specifically women, gays, and Jews.
The authorities first discovered the 31-year-old Ali K.’s pro-Salafist activity last month when he registered for a permit allowing an information booth to give out Salafist literature in a public place. According to the WAZ, Essen police president Stephania Fischer-Weinsziehr believes he will be “dismissed from the civil service.”
Neither Ali K. nor his attorney have issued statements.
Salafist Muslims in Germany moved forward with a campaign in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to give away 25 million Korans.
Ibrahim Abou Nagie, a Gazaborn Palestinian preacher, who lives in Cologne is the principal organizer of the growing Salafist Koran distribution campaign. The Interior Ministry in North Rhine- Westphalia termed the actions as aggressive proselytizing.
It is unclear if Ali K. has contact with Abou Nagie.
A March report in The Guardian noted that United Kingdom officials believe Germany has become a hotbed of radical Islamic recruitment activity.
A German Islamist from Kosovo, Arid Uka, shot two American soldiers and was linked to Salafist groups. Critics charge lax German laws with failing to rope in growing Islamic extremism in the Federal Republic. German Muslims have over the years travelled to the war theaters of Afghanistan and Pakistan to participate in violent attacks on American serviceman.
Last week, a German court convicted Ahmad Wali Siddiqui, a German-Afghan from Hamburg, of membership in al-Qaida. The court sentenced him to six years. Siddiqui was allegedly planning attacks on Europe’s economic institutions. He travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2009 with a group of fellow German Muslims for secure training from al-Qaida and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The US government captured him in Kabul in 2010 and learned about the planned terror attacks in Europe.