Germany: Muslim preacher from Iraq on trial for recruiting for the Islamic State
This is what Angela Merkel has wrought: “Germany’s security services estimate there are around 10,300 radical Islamists in the country, compared to some 3,800 in 2011.”
“About 700 of them are considered dangerous and capable of a violent attack.”
That is almost certainly a drastically inaccurate low estimate.
“Nicknamed ‘the faceless preacher’ for showing his back to the camera in propaganda videos, the 33-year-old Iraqi was arrested last November on suspicion of being the ‘central figure’ in an IS recruitment ring.”
Why is this Iraqi in Germany at all? How did he get in, and under what circumstances? Would preventing his entry or deporting him have been “Islamophobic”?
“Walaa, who has two wives…”
Is polygamy legal in Germany now? Or would prosecuting him for that also be “Islamophobic”?
“Much of the prosecution’s case rests on evidence collected by an unidentified informant who infiltrated the network for months. But the key witness is not expected to testify at the trial after Walaa urged his followers to kill the mole.”
Welcome to Angela Merkel’s Germany.
“German ‘Islamic State leader’ on trial for recruiting jihadists,” by Michelle Fitzpatrick, AFP, September 26, 2017:
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — Notorious hate preacher Abu Walaa, described as the Islamic State group’s de facto leader in Germany, goes on trial Tuesday accused of radicalizing young men and running a jihadist terror network linked to the Berlin Christmas market attacker.Nicknamed “the faceless preacher” for showing his back to the camera in propaganda videos, the 33-year-old Iraqi was arrested last November on suspicion of being the “central figure” in an IS recruitment ring.Walaa — named by the authorities as Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A. — will appear before a court in the northern German city of Celle alongside four co-defendants accused of supporting IS.
Police patrol inside the Christmas market area two days after an attack with a truck in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin on December 21, 2016. (AFP Photo/Odd Andersen)The five created a “pan-regional Salafist-jihadist network” in which Walaa “took on the leading role as the representative of the so-called Islamic State in Germany,” prosecutors said in their indictment. “The goal of the network was to send people to IS in Syria or Iraq.”The closely-watched terror trial will take place under heavy security and is expected to run until early 2018.“For a long time little has been known about the backroom men, those who seduce and incite to jihad,” Der Spiegel news weekly wrote. “The proceedings against Abu Walaa promise to give deep insights into these mechanisms, which makes this one of the most interesting Islamist trials in recent years.”…A shadowy figure who long evaded capture, Walaa has been linked to some of Germany’s most high profile jihadist attacks since arriving in the country in 2001.After setting up his base in Hildesheim, a northern town seen as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism, he made a name for himself delivering extremist sermons at the notorious DIK mosque, which has since been shut down.Walaa, who has two wives and several children, also gave seminars across the country calling for jihad. He notably spoke at a Berlin mosque frequented by Anis Amri, who drove a truck through a crowded Christmas market last December, killing 12 people….Walaa’s four accomplices — a Turkish national, a German, a German-Serbian and a Cameroonian, aged between 27 and 51 — are likewise accused of indoctrinating young men with jihadist ideology.German media reported that among their “students” was at least one of the three teenage boys who last year set off a home-made bomb at an Indian wedding, badly wounding a Sikh priest.Much of the prosecution’s case rests on evidence collected by an unidentified informant who infiltrated the network for months.But the key witness is not expected to testify at the trial after Walaa urged his followers to kill the mole.Walaa and his co-accused have not been charged with planning any attacks in Germany. But according to the indictment, they provided logistical and financial support to smuggle at least eight fighters into IS-held territory….Germany’s security services estimate there are around 10,300 radical Islamists in the country, compared to some 3,800 in 2011. About 700 of them are considered dangerous and capable of a violent attack.
