Muslim Brotherhood Expands Presence in Germany, Seeks to Establish Sharia Law

Muslim Brotherhood expands presence in Germany, seeks to establish Sharia law – security official

© Johannes Eisele / AFP

Islamic radicals from the Muslim Brotherhood are actively trying to gain a "monopoly" over mosques in the eastern German state of Saxony to attract more followers and increase their influence, the local security service chief has warned.

The members of the radical Salafist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which was established in Egypt in 1928, “have long been active in Saxony, although they were stealthy,” Gordian Meyer-Plath, the president of the regional department of the German domestic security and anti-terrorist service, the BfV, told Germany’s MDR broadcaster.

Meyer-Plath warned, however, that “only now, when a [large] number of Muslims have come to Germany, do they see a chance to expand their network beyond some central structures and become interesting for the new Muslims in Saxony.”

While downplaying the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany as being “beyond Jihad,” meaning that the group is not actively involved in terrorist attacks, the security official pointed to the threat it poses to democratic society.

“The Muslim Brothers still want to establish Sharia law in Germany,” which would have grave consequences for religious freedom, women’s rights and democratic values, Meyer-Plath said.

The group is active in about 70 countries, where it builds mosques, schools and hospitals, presents itself as a democratic force and officially distances itself from an idea of the global Jihad in an attempt to win the sympathies of locals.

In Saxony, the Salafist group has been actively sponsoring the construction of new mosques. It has already built several mosques and plans construction of more places of worship in such cities as Dresden, Leipzig, Meissen, Riesa, Pirna, Bautzen und Goerlitz.

Meyer-Plath drew attention to the fact that, while western Germany has numerous Muslim associations that offer their services to newly arrived Muslims, the eastern part of the country lacks them. The Muslim Brotherhood “is trying to break into this vacuum and secure a monopolistic position,” he said, adding that the opportunity to spread the group’s influence came with the ongoing refugee and migrant influx from Muslim-majority countries.

“Offering prayers is a religious duty for Muslims. And when there are no [other] mosques in the region, they go to those that exist there,” Meyer-Plath explained, adding that “it is needless to say that it is a bad situation when the only Muslim structures in the area are controlled by Islamists and political extremists.”

The security official believes that the group has vast financial reserves as it does not lack money for sponsoring new construction projects or just buying real estate. 

“They are going through the land with a fantastic sum of money and are just buying real property” to turn it into mosques, Meyer-Plath said, adding that the local Muslims often appreciate their efforts.

Most of it comes, almost certainly, from Saudi Arabia, a country of Salafists who want to establish Sharia over the entire world. Muslim Brotherhood will do or say whatever they need to do to get ordinary Muslims involved. They will radicalize them later, as needed. The Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in many countries as supporters of terrorism including the governments of: Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Of course, being outlawed doesn't preclude any of these Gulf States from sponsoring them abroad.

Odd, isn't it? They are outlawed in many Muslim countries but allowed to flourish in Europe. Can you spell cultural suicide?

The official urged citizens to avoid prejudice toward all people who attend mosques established by Salafists. The fact that the mosques are controlled by Islamists “does not mean that people who go there are necessarily being indoctrinated [into and becoming extremists],” the head of the regional BfV department said.

Yet!

The Muslims that attend such mosques “are often absolutely unaware” of the true nature of these facilities because the Salafist structures are quite “cautious about what they are saying,” Meyer-Plath said. He added, however, that believers often “start sympathizing [with the radicals] and become potential [recruits].”

At the same time, Meyer-Plath stressed that the security services would continue to just monitor the activities of the Brotherhood in Saxony but would not take any active measures against them in line with German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere’s policy of “intense surveillance.”

Meanwhile, an Islamic Cultural Center in Saxony’s capital of Dresden, which is allegedly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, denied all accusations of radicalism, saying that it supports “non-political Islam.”

The center fully supports democratic values, its spokesman, Muhammed Wellenreuther, told German media. He also said that it welcomes both adherents of “conservative” and “progressive” forms of Islam. 

Wellenreuther confirmed that his organization looks for real property for sale, particularly in the rural areas of Saxony, in order to establish Islamic cultural centers and mosques there, as “there is a great demand” for them. 

BfV figures show that about 1,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood are active in Germany, as reported by MDR. They particularly run Islamic centers that are used as venues for political and religious agitation.

Fmr FBI Agent: ‘Vast Majority’ of US Mosques/Islamic Centers Part of ‘Jihadi Network’

To be clear - Jihadi Network is not ISIS. They may have similar goals, but different methods.

Islamic Center YOON S. BYUN/Boston GlobeYoon S. Byun/Boston Globe

by TONY LEE

On Friday’s Breitbart News Daily (6AM-9AM EST) on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125, former FBI counter-terrorism Special Agent John Guandolo argued that the “vast majority” of the 2,200 Islamic organizations, centers, and mosques in the United States are a part of a broader “Jihadi network” intent on imposing Sharia Law in America.

Guandolo told host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon that the San Bernardino terrorist, the UC Merced stabber, the Chattanooga shooter, and the Boston Bombers can all be traced back to such Islamic Centers where “they were supported and trained.”

Guandolo said that the San Bernardino terrorists attended the Islamic Center of Riverside, which he said was a “a Muslim Brotherhood Center.” He noted that the Boston Bombers attended the Islamic Society of Boston, which he said was a subsidiary of the Islamic Society of North America that was founded by an al-Qaeda guy who used to advise former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore and is now in prison.

He said there are over 2,200 Islamic Centers and mosques in America and the “vast majority of them are a part of this network — they’re hostile.”

He said “over 75%” of these centers, based on their property records, are a part of the “Muslim Brotherhood network” since they are “owned by the North American Islamic Trust, which is the bank for the Muslim Brotherhood here.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization. It was they who were overthrown in the violent coup in Egypt. Why it, or anything remotely related to it is allowed to operate in the US is inexplicable.

He said “in 2006, I put together the first training program inside the government on the jihadi network in the United States… and was able to sneak a second one in in early 2007.”

Guandolo trained “quite a number of agents from a variety of agencies,” including the Department of Justice, before the government shut down the programs. He mentioned that the “most prominent Muslim Brotherhood Organizations like the Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Hamas organization called the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) — complained to the White House about the training inside the government at the FBI.”

Guandolo said he “came to understand very deeply the massive jihadi network we have in the United States” and discovered that “the leaders of the Islamic organizations… were actually interfacing with government leaders and advising them with how to proceed in the war on terror, as it was called.”

Guandolo realized that “we were being advised by the enemy on how to investigate and deal with the enemy” and “and that’s why I started the training.”

He mentioned that in the U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation case in 2008, a 15-year FBI investigation that was revealed demonstrated “that the most prominent Islamic organizations in America and North America are a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the jihadi network here.” Guandolo said that “internal documents entered into evidence say that the purpose of this network is to wage civilization jihad… until the entire world, and specifically the United States, is under Sharia law and the Islamic State is established here.”

He said that, for instance, the “Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)—the largest Muslim Brotherhood organization here— is a Hamas funding entity” and its leadership works with the Secretary of State and the National Security staff, the previous four Secretaries of State, and briefs the FBI and CIA. He mentioned that the previous president of ISNA Mohamed Magid works “very closely with the White House and sits on the Homeland Security Advisory Committee with a secret clearance.”

Guandolo emphasized that these Muslim leaders are the ones that are working with the FBI, Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, National Security staffs.

“Look at our policy for domestic terrorism… and you can track it back to these organizations,” he said, adding that “they write policy” and say “look, this is offensive to Muslims and this is how you need to do it, and we have done it.”

Guandolo said that it is “insane” that these leaders serve a liaisons “between the Muslim community and the U.S. Government.”

“This is the kind of operation these guys are doing here,” he said.

Saying that he only speaks “with what I would walk into a court of law with” because there is “no issue with the amount of evidence” on the matter, Guandolo said the objective of the jihadi network is to “to establish an Islamic State under Sharia.” For instance, he said the Muslim Brotherhood’s own bylaws in English explicitly state that “they must fight the tyrants and enemies of Allah.”

He also said the one of the biggest mistakes in dealing with Islamic terrorism is that “we want to tie it to ISIS” or another group when this is “part of a much broader movement” and more “than one organization.”

“That network is not being touched,” he said. “That network in Paris that supported that attack is not being touched.”

More troubling, according to Guandolo, is that many authorities in the federal government are oblivious to the Jihadi network.

He said during one of his training sessions, someone who had been in the FBI and counterterrorism for over 14 years and was so angry that he “had never heard of the information you are putting out here.” When he asked others in audience from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies to “raise your hand if you knew this… zero hands went up.”

“That right there is the issue,” he said, adding that he has even briefed three- and four-star generals who had also been clueless. “They don’t know it.”

Guandolo said that even senior government officials have “no idea this is going on inside the United States because the people advising us are the leaders of the organizations—that per evidence in counterterrorism trials—have been identified organizations that are Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, al-Qaeda” who are “necessarily hostile to our system, our war fighting, our way of life. That’s the problem.”

Guandolo runs the understandingthethreat.com site and is the author of Raising a Jihadi Generation