100 Dangerous Islamists in Germany

Yesterday it was reported that the German security services believe that hundreds of fanatical Islamists described as ' potentially dangerous' may be living in Germany, with a hardcore of 100 described as 'particularly dangerous'.

It is believed that between 60 - 80 of the 100 particularly dangerous Jihadists had at some point been involved with fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and potentially 140 more have received 'some' training in Jihadist training camps, Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning said.

He continued:

"The danger should not be underestimated. The 60 to 80 who have returned make up the overwhelming majority of up to around 100 people whom we class as dangerous," Hanning told the daily Tagesspiegel."There are approximately another 300 potentially dangerous Islamists on top of this. Altogether we are talking about a network of around 1,000 people," said Hanning, who used to head Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND.

He added that he was worried about the possibility of attacks in the run up to this September's general election in Germany. "The threats do not mention the elections directly. But for Jihadists in Pakistan the election is important because it will determine Germany's foreign policy in the future," he said."We remember that the attacks in Madrid in 2004 were carried out a few days before elections in Spain," he said, referring to the commuter train bombings that left 191 people dead in Europe's worst terror attack."That really did affect the outcome of the elections ... al-Qaeda sees this as a model for success," Hanning said. "In the threats against Germany the Spanish elections are mentioned. That worries us."

Germany has yet to suffer from a major Islamic terror attack, but with the number of Muslims living there, many unemployed or disaffected young men, I fear that will not be the case indefinitely.

It has come close; in 2006 suitcase bombs were placed on trains heading to Cologne's main railway station, but they failed to detonate. In 2007, police arrested 3 men suspected of planning chemical attacks on US citizens and interests.