Today's Terror Attack in Europe - France, Again

#JeSuisPrêtre: Twitter lights up in prayer for priest murdered in Normandy

Another, in a string of terror attacks in Europe! This is the 6th attack between Germany and France 

in less than two weeks. All of them committed by Muslim men, at least half by migrants.

Welcome to the new Europe, enriched by embracing the Religion of Peace.

This picture obtained on the website of the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray parish on July 26, 2016 shows late priest Jacques Hamel celebrating a mass on June 11, 2016 in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy © HO / AFP

Social media users, including clergymen, are taking to Twitter to pray for the Catholic priest killed in a suspected terror attack in northern France Tuesday.

The hashtag #JeSuisPrêtre (I am priest) is being used to condemn the ongoing violence and pay respect to the priest who reportedly had his throat slit by two men who held five hostages in a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Fellow clergymen have also paid respect to the 84-year-old priest,  Father Jacques Hamel, murdered in the attack.

This priest based in Paris, urged people to pray for the victims and killer and not seek vengeance.

Father Hamel’s death was confirmed by the Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, in a statement as he urged people to pray for the victims and “not give into violence”.

Father Hamel has been described by members of the community as a warm and peaceful man.

Claude-Albert Seguin, a 68-year-old pensioner, told The Associated Press that “everyone knew him very well. He was very loved in the community and a kind man.''

Mohammed Karabila, president of the Regional Muslim Council of Normandy, told The Local he was “distressed at the death of his friend.”

“Our religious communities always worked together,” he said. “For the past 18 months, and the beginning of the attacks in France, we had meetings in the interfaith committee, and we communicated a lot.”

Father Hamel was awarded a Golden Jubilee for serving 50 years in the priesthood in 2008. At the time of the attack, he had been filling in for another priest, Auguste Moanda-Phuati, who has been the parish priest for the past five years.

"I could not possibly imagine that such a thing would happen to us," Moanda-Phuati said.

The two assailants were shot dead by police and another hostage is reported to be in a serious condition.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls took to Twitter to brand the attack as "barbaric", saying the Catholic community and France as a whole is hurting.

President  François Hollande has confirmed the incident as a terror attack at a press conference in Seine Maritime.

"We are facing a group - Daesh [IS] - who have declared war and we have to fight this war using all means possible,” he said.

IS, themselves, have also claimed responsibility for the attack.

String of attacks

The Ansbach bombing is the fourth attack in southern Germany -- and the third in the state of Bavaria -- in recent days, which also came on the heels of the Bastille Day ISIS attack in Nice, France, that killed 84 people.

A police officer stands guard in Ansbach. 

Speaking at a press conference Monday, Hermann acknowledged it had been a "very terrible week" in Bavaria.

"Yes, this was also for me personally a very terrible week, as I think it was for most of the people in Bavaria. The attack last Monday on the train in Wurzburg, then the rampage ... in Munich Friday night, and now again an attack."

The stabbing attack in Wurzburg, which authorities said appeared motivated by ISIS propaganda, has left four people hospitalized, including one in an induced coma, medical officials said.

The Munich shooting spree was carried out by an 18-year-old German-Iranian with dual nationality, who killed nine people before killing himself in a shopping district.

Police said the gunman was a mentally troubled individual who was obsessed with mass shootings and may have planned the attack for a year. Authorities have not found a link to terror groups.

And on Sunday, hours before the Ansbach attack, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a Polish woman with a machete in the city of Reutlingen.

Germans were shocked by sexual assaults of women blamed on immigrants at New Year's Eve festivities in Cologne and other cities, and three Syrian men were arrested last month on suspicions they were planning to carry out a mass casualty attack in Dusseldorf.

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Terrorist Attacks in Europe in 2016

This is a list of terrorist attacks only. It does not include those attacks that were thwarted by police. Nor does it include the thousands of sexual or child sex attacks that have occurred in Europe this year at the hands of Muslim immigrants. That's a whole 'nuther story which I hope to compile before the end of the year.

Note: all the attacks listed below were committed by Muslims

Firefighter stand beside a truck at a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, December 19, 2016

after the truck ploughed into the crowded Christmas market in the German capital

© Pawel Kopczynski / Reuters

Monday’s suspected terrorist attack on Berlin’s Christmas market and the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, which has been condemned as an act of terrorism, add to the deadly wave of attacks that have rocked Europe this year.

RT takes a look back at the major terrorist incidents which occurred since the November 2015 Paris attacks, which left 130 victims dead, and marked 2016 as another bloody year for Europe.

Brussels bombings, March 22 – 35 killed, including three suicide bombers

Three explosions hit Brussels during the morning rush hour. Two blasts went off in the departure hall of Brussels’ Zaventem Airport while another bomb exploded at the Maalbeek Metro station. Some 300 people were injured. Belgium responded by raising the terrorist threat to the highest level.

Munich stabbing attack,  May 10 – 1 killed

One person was killed and three injured at a train station near Munich when they were attacked by a knife-wielding man, reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar”. Officials later reported the man has mental health issues and would not stand trial as a result.

French police couple stabbed on June 13 – 3 killed, including the attacker

Two police officers, who were married to each other, were stabbed to death at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris in what French president Francois Hollande described as "unquestionably a terrorist act".

The attacker, Larossi Abballa, pledged allegiance to Islamic State and previously spent time in jail over jihadist links. He was killed by police special forces.

Nice truck terror attack, July 14 – 87 killed, 400+ injured

Eighty-six people were killed and 434 people injured when a truck plowed into a crowd in Nice during Bastille Day celebrations. The Tunisian truck driver was killed by police. It was reported he shouted “Allahu Akbar” before the attack.

President Hollande responded to this by extending the national state of emergency, which had been in place since the Paris attacks.

Ansbach bombing Germany, July 24 – suicide bomber killed, 15 injured

Fifteen people were injured, four seriously, in a suicide bombing outside a wine bar in Ansbach, Germany.

The bomber, identified as Mohammad Daleel, was a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State.

Normandy church attack, July 26 – 3 killed, including two attackers

An 84-year-old priest was killed in an attack at a church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. IS later claimed responsibility for the incident.

The priest was among six people taken hostage by the attackers before they were killed by police.

Hamburg stabbing attack, October 16 – 1 killed

A 16-year-old boy was fatally stabbed near the Alster lake bridge in Hamburg. His girlfriend who was thrown into a lake by the assailant swam to safety.

On October 20 IS claimed responsibility for the killing through their news site Amaq however, following an investigation, police later said any links to the extremist group were unlikely.

ISIS Tried to Recruit Refugees from Danish Migration Center

This is one of those good news/bad news stories. It's frightening that IS can walk right into an asylum centre in Europe and start recruiting jihadists. On the other hand, it's reassuring that the migrants reported the incident. That may indicate that there are few jihadist sleepers in the mix.


© Johan Nilsson / Reuters

A member of the Islamic State terrorist group is alleged to have made a daring visit to a remote Danish refugee center in the hope of finding new recruits for the jihadist extremists, according to a report obtained by a Danish TV station.

According to broadcaster DR, the Danish Red Cross reported the incident to the Danish Immigration Service. The episode is said to have taken place in April at the Slottet asylum center, which is located on the remote island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

The Red Cross says that some of the 234 residents at the center told the shelter’s management that they had been approached by a man who claimed to be a representative of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). Their claims were deemed to be credible by those who run the center.

The refugee center accommodates people from 13 different countries, including a number of asylum seekers from areas affected by IS.

The Red Cross has not yet replied to RT’s request for comment on the report.


Bornholm, Island, Denmark

Some 21,000 refugees entered Denmark in 2015 and local authorities expect the same number to apply for asylum in 2016. The number of migrants arriving in Denmark has, in fact, nearly tripled compared to three years ago. The country lays on the route between the two most popular destinations for refugees in Europe – Germany and Sweden. In the wake of migrant influx, Danish officials have tried to make the state less attractive for the newcomers by cutting social benefits for refugees by 45%.

Meanwhile, Islamic State is being increasingly linked to attacks

committed by migrants in Europe.

In Germany, a knife- and axe-wielding refugee believed to be from Afghanistan or Pakistan injured five people in a train near the city of Wurzburg on July 17. IS then released a video, allegedly showing the perpetrator claiming “I am a soldier of the caliphate and I am going to carry out a suicide attack in Germany.”

An Islamist video was also found in the phone of a Syrian refugee who carried out a suicide bomb attack in the German city of Ansbach last week, killing nine. Investigators said the man had “pledged allegiance” to IS in the footage.

One of Paris attackers that killed 130 people last November had apparently made his way into Europe with a Syrian passport pretending to be a refugee. IS claimed responsibility for the assault as well.

    Bornholm Island, Denmark

Islam - Current Day > Caroline Glick - 2 State Solution; Massacre Prevented in Tel Aviv; Another Terrorist Assault in Ansbach; DeSantis boots CAIR from Program

..

Biden and Blinken's madness toward Israel is obvious in this article.

CAROLINE GLICK: THE SIX FALSE, FAILED ASSUMPTIONS

OF THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION

written by Caroline Glick 

September 7, 2022 

(JNS) U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken refused to meet with either Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz or National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata when they visited Washington last week to discuss the dangers the administration’s deal with Iran poses to Israel. Instead, Blinken sent his deputy, Wendy Sherman, to meet with Hulata. And from the State Department’s press release of the meeting, she read him the riot act over the Palestinians while largely ignoring the nuclear deal, which opens Israel to existential threat.

Following that meeting, Blinken dispatched Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to increase pressure on Israel for concessions to the Palestinians. Her visit was capped off by an angry string of tweets from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, who exhorted Israel to stop blocking Arab Americans who are assessed as posing security threats to Israel from entering the country. Nides further insisted that Israel transfer control over its immigration policy to the hostile, terror-supporting Palestinian Authority.

To discuss the strategic insanity of the administration’s pro-Palestinian policies, Caroline Glick hosts IDF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Gershon Hacohen on this week’s “Mideast News Hour.”

Hacohen, who served as commander of the IDF’s war colleges and currently commands the IDF’s northern column in reserves, explains the six false, failed assumptions behind the two-state solution, and through them demonstrates how the United States’ continued support for the failed policy exposes a deep-seated hostility to Israel’s survival.

Hacohen then explains the roots and danger of the IDF high command’s continued support for the so-called separation doctrine that asserts that Israel can safely withdraw from Judea and Samaria and live at peace with the Palestinians. He gives an explanation for the IDF’s refusal to walk away from the failed two-state paradigm despite the strategic threat it poses to Israel, and gives examples of how the threat arising from that strategic blindness manifests on the ground.

Less than an hour after Glick and Hacohen speak, three Palestinian terrorists in the Jordan Valley open fire on a bus transporting soldiers. They shower the bus with bullets and pipe bombs and attempted to set it on fire. The attack, which wounded six soldiers and a civilian bus driver, was a tragic and infuriating expression of Hacohen’s arguments.

Major massacre thwarted as Arab terrorist caught in Tel Aviv

with 2 bombs and submachine gun

 September 8, 2022

Major massacre thwarted as Arab terrorist caught in Tel Aviv with 2 bombs and submachine gun.

Police at the scene where an armed Palestinian terrorist was caught at the Jaffa Clock square on

September 8, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The terrorist, in Israel illegally, admitted he was en route

to committing a large-scale terror attack.

By Debbie Reiss, 

World Israel News

A Palestinian terrorist armed with a submachine gun and two bombs was arrested by officers in the Arab-Jewish coastal city of Jaffa on Thursday, on his way to committing a major terror attack in Tel Aviv, police said.

The 19-year-old resident of Nablus, who crossed the green line illegally, aroused the suspicion of officers from the Yassam special forces unit near Jaffa’s clock tower who then arrested him. He was carrying two pipe bombs filled with nails, police said, as well as a Palestinian manufactured ‘Carlo’ submachine gun, a weapon of choice for terrorists from Judea and Samaria, since they are untraceable.

Police bomb sappers defused the explosives.

The teen later admitted that he was on his way to commit a large-scale attack and was looking for somewhere crowded, police said.

“He was looking to commit a massacre,” Police Chief Kobi Shabtai told reporters at the scene.

Shabtai hailed the Yassam officers for “preventing a huge and deadly terror attack.”

Sharif Hason, one of the officers who arrested the terrorist, described the incident.

“We were in Jaffa, we identified a suspicious person, stopped him and he admitted that he was in Israel illegally,” he said.

“He had a really heavy bag, and there was something metal poking out. While checking it we saw it was a gun. We told the guy to get down on the floor, that he was under arrest,” he added.

The terrorist had just been released from a four-month prison sentence for bringing a knife onto the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in April.

He'll get more than 4 months for this!

Another suspect in the area was also detained.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid said police prevented a “significant terrorist attack.”

“The State of Israel will act forcefully and without compromise against those who try to harm us. I commend the security forces for apprehending the terrorists in Tel Aviv-Yafo and preventing a significant terrorist attack,” he said in a statement.

“We must continue to act with all the tools at our disposal to restore security and stability to the region.”

The statement also noted that Lapid held a security assessment earlier in the day at IDF headquarters to discuss the upsurge of terrorism, “the goal of which was to consider tools and immediate action to stabilize the security situation in Judea and Samaria and halt the deterioration.”

Knifeman shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ stabs two people

before being shot dead by police in Germany

By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE and AFP

PUBLISHED: 11:02 EDT, 9 September 2022 | UPDATED: 12:36 EDT, 9 September 2022

A knife-wielding man shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ wounded two people in a southern German town on Thursday before being fatally shot by police.

The 30-year-old man attacked several passers-by 'with at least one knife', near the train station in Ansbach, a Bavarian town close to Nuremberg, local police said.

Two people were injured but their lives were not in danger, the statement said.

When security forces intervened, the assailant 'attacked the police' who opened fire and fatally wounded him, the statement added.

Investigators said they were investigating a possible 'Islamist or terrorist context'.

Gee, ya think?

'The man shouted 'Allahu Akbar' several times during the commission of the crime,' police said, adding that they were investigating 'whether the crime had a link with an Islamist or terrorist context'.

Footage purportedly showed the knifeman chasing people across a car park.

A man, seen in the video wearing a navy gilet over a white t-shirt, is shown stalking a group of people through a car park - while holding a long blade.

As he nears the group, he suddenly sprints towards them. The people run from the man, as the sound of sirens can be heard getting closer to the scene. Shouting can be heard in the footage, but the words 'Allahu Akbar' are not discernible.

The footage ends with the man running down a path and out of sight behind a hedgerow. Sometime after, the man was shot dead by police. According to German tabloid Bild, he 'died on the spot'.

Ansbach was the site of a 2016 terrorist attack, in which a suicide bomber injured 15 people outside a wine bar in the town.

The bomber was identified as Mohammad Daleel - a 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Gee, I wonder if there was any link to Islam or terrorism????

He was the only person killed in the incident.

DeSantis Accuses CAIR of Deception, Ousts It from Florida Program

by Susannah Johnston

Focus on Western Islamism

September 1, 2022

A man wears a Palestinian keffiyyeh while others carry Palestinian flags at a CAIR-Florida rally.

The office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has told FWI it will be removing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a partner in its Faith and Community Initiative.

In 2019, the governor founded the Governor's Faith and Community Initiative "to facilitate the efforts of the state's faith-based entities by improving communication and collaboration among them," according to Dylan Fisher, the program's director.

On August 18, a Facebook post by the Florida branch of CAIR claimed to be a leading member of the initiative, declaring, "Governor Ron DeSantis recently presented CAIR-Florida with a Certificate of Recognition for our continued work in service of the vulnerable populations of Floridians."

Governor DeSantis has, however, previously taken a strong stance against CAIR, noting its identification by the U.S. government in 2007 as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation's funding of the terror group, Hamas.

CAIR-Florida co-sponsored a pro-Hamas rally in 2014, at which participants yelled "We are Hamas." In 2017, then-director, Hassan Shibly, endorsed a conference that promoted violent jihad and personally referred to Muslims from the moderate Ahmadiyya as "heretical."

When FWI asked the governor's office how CAIR had received recognition, DeSantis' Press Secretary, Bryan Griffin, explained "The faith office will certainly review this oversight and remove CAIR from our list of partner organizations."

"It is false for CAIR to claim that they were affirmatively selected to receive any sort of recognition. This was an automatically generated thank you note to any faith-based entity that self-enrolled in our Faith and Community Based Initiative via a website. Every person and entity that signed up received this automatically generated response."

Critics accuse CAIR-Florida of a history of misrepresentations. In 2020, the Islamist group presented known terror supporters and a convicted murderer as misunderstood "activists" on a webinar to "highlight the government's use of imprisonment as a fear and intimidation tactic targeting both individuals and communities, and eroding civil liberties."

The August 14, 2020 invitation to a CAIR-Florida webinar series honoring as "misunderstood activists" violent jihad advocate Sami Al-Arian, terrorist camp graduate and Taliban promoter Moazzam Begg, and convicted cop-killer Jamil Al-Amin.

The first, Sami Al-Arian, is an advocate of violent jihad, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to supporting the designated terror group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The second, Moazzam Begg, is a leading British Salafi who, according to the Pentagon, "trained at three terrorist camps." Begg says he told the CIA under interrogation that he "wanted to live in an Islamic state" and described the Taliban as "better than anything Afghanistan has had in the past 25 years."

CAIR-Florida also picked a convicted cop-killer as another victimized "activist," Jamil Al-Amin. Al-Amin shot two sheriff's deputies, killing one in March 2000. He has made the FBI's "Most Wanted" list more than once, has been investigated in connection to multiple murders, and views the United States Constitution as "diametrically opposed to what Allah has commanded." Al-Amin also benefits from CAIR financially, as they seek to get him off the cop-killing charge.

The governor's office responded to FWI's inquiry about the "recognition" of CAIR saying, "We welcome the efforts of any legitimate faith-based organization that wants to work to serve the needs of Floridians. However, CAIR does not reflect our shared values, and this will be corrected immediately."

CAIR-Florida did not respond to FWI's request for comment.

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Europe's New Normal - France and Germany Flooded with Radicalized Muslims

French PM warns 15,000 people being radicalized, 1,400 probed amid foiled terror plots

Members of French special police forces © Pascal Rossignol / Reuters

More terror attacks are in store for France, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned, saying that some 15,000 people are in the process of radicalization in France and currently on police radar, while 1400 under investigation.


Terrorism in Europe

“The threat [of attacks on France] is at its highest we have seen it in recent days; it is there even as we speak now,” Manuel Valls said in an interview with Europe 1 radio and Itele television on Sunday.

“There will be new attacks, there will be innocent victims. It is my job to tell this truth to the French people… We are a target – everyone understands this,” he added, stating that at least two attacks were foiled during the past week, while “every day, the intelligence services, police and gendarmerie thwart attacks and dismantle [terror] channels.”

The French capital was put on “maximum” alert this week after French officials said they had broken up an Islamic State-affiliated “terrorist cell” that was planning to hit at a Paris railway. French police arrested three radicalized women who reportedly intended to bomb the populous Paris Gare de Lyon railway station to avenge the death of IS leader Abu Muhammed al-Adnani.

Valls said the authorities are presently watching some 15,000 who could be radicals planning terror acts.

“We have nearly 700 French jihadists and French residents, who are currently fighting in Iraq and Syria,” he added, noting that this figure included “275 women and dozens of children.”

Valls also responded to comments recently made by France’s former president, Nicolas Sarkozy. In an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) newspaper, Sarkozy said France needed to create “a special anti-terrorist court” and place French citizens suspected of having militant links in preventative detention in order to boost security. Valls slammed Sarkozy’s idea, saying such measures could inspire more attacks, while also criticizing the anti-terrorism measures Sarkozy took while he was in office.

“[Nicolas Sarkozy] made a mistake as president when he evaluated the extent of the [terror] threat. [His policy] weakened our security and defense by reducing investments in our internal and external security forces and reducing the [number of servicemen].”

“He is wrong about trying to wring the neck of the rule of law against the threat. His [method] is wrong [and], if he were in power to do [as he proposes], there would be more attacks,” Valls said.

The PM also mentioned a suggestion recently made by French Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas, who proposed creating “10,000 [prison] spaces within the next ten years” to incarcerate those accused of plotting or carrying out terror attacks. On Saturday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that French authorities have arrested some 293 people “engaged in terrorist networks” since the beginning of the year.

France has been on high alert since January of 2015, when it was hit by a series of Islamic State-linked terrorist attacks. The biggest loss of life took place in November of 2015, when at least 130 people were killed and 368 injured in coordinated terror attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, a northern Parisian suburb. A tragedy in Nice on July 14 of this year killed at least 84 people when a truck driven by an IS sympathizer plowed through crowds during Bastille Day celebrations. The French parliament voted to extend the country’s state of emergency by six additional months after the Nice attack.

Number of potential terrorists in Germany is higher than ever – German interior minister

© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters


There are more people in Germany who could potentially commit terrorist acts than ever in the past, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told German daily Bild in an interview, adding that the terrorist threat in Germany is “very real.”

More than 520 people in Germany are capable of committing “unexpected” and potentially “high-profile” terrorist attacks inspired by Islamism, de Maiziere said in the interview, published on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US. He also added that the current number of potential terrorists in Germany is at its highest in history.

The minister also warned that, along with potential Islamist attackers, there are also about 360 people who are “closely affiliated” with them and could lend assistance in preparing an attack or “provide logistical support” to the assailants. He added that such people usually belong to potential terrorists’ “inner circle”.

De Maiziere emphasized that “today, the threat comes from both hit-teams [arriving in Germany] from abroad and radicalized lone wolfs in Germany.”

“Both threats are now very real,” he added.

He said that the hit-teams “are secretly smuggled into Europe and prepare their actions without being noticed, as we saw with the attacks in Paris and Brussels.”

The minister stressed that the German security services are “working intensively” in order to “keep all potential terrorists in sight,” adding that there have been more investigations and arrests in 2016 than in the last few years.

He also admitted that it is much harder for security services to identify “radicalized lone wolves” than organized hit-teams as they “get radicalized with Islamist propaganda in the Internet or by hate-preachers.”

He warned that, despite all the efforts of security services, there could be as of yet unidentified potential attackers.

One ‘should not suspect all Muslims’

At the same time, de Maiziere stressed that Germans should not suspect or blame all Muslims. He also said that Islamists are exploiting religion in “justifying” killing by Islamic beliefs.

Although Islamist terrorism “has something to do with Islam,” Islam “by no means carries the seeds of terrorism,” the minister said, as quoted by Der Spiegel. He also added that most victims of terrorist attacks are actually Muslims.

That very fact counters your argument that Islam 'by no means carries the seeds of terrorism'. I suggest you read the Quran, it's quite horrifying.

De Maiziere also addressed German Muslims in his interview and called on Muslim communities to “notice if some particular persons are in the process of radicalization and take timely measures.” He also urged them to distance themselves from Islamist terrorists.

The minister’s comments come as a German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees advisory agency says that a growing number of girls and young women are being radicalized in Germany. In 2015, a half of those radicalized were girls while previously they only constituted 25 percent of all cases, Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reported, citing data from the advisory agency.

The younger girls are radicalized year after year, according to Michael Kiefer from the Institute of Islamic Theology of the University of Osnabrueck, who told Der Spiegel that “13-year-old girls are among those, who are radicalized.”

This summer, Germany witnessed two major terrorist attacks. On July 24, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee, who had pledged allegiance to the leader of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), detonated a bomb in the Bavarian town of Ansbach, killing himself and injuring 15 people.

On 18 July 2016, a 17-year-old refugee injured five people when he attacked passengers with a knife and hatchet on a train near Wuerzburg. Following the attacks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the EU needs stricter border controls and special warning systems to properly process the migrant influx.

However, Merkel still refuses to change her welcoming refugee policy that has been criticized by both her political rivals and allies. In the meantime, the right wing populist anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AfD) beat Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in her home state and is now represented in eight out of 16 regional parliaments. Merkel’s popularity rating continues to plunge at the same time.

Send Them Back: Bavarian Minister Wants to Repatriate 1,000s of Refugees Within 3 Years

Merkel's Migrant Madness under fire from Bavaria

© Dominic Ebenbichler / Reuters

The thousands of migrants that flooded into Germany thanks to Chancellor Merkel’s open-door policy should be sent back home within the next three years, Bavaria’s Finance Minister said in an interview with Spiegel newspaper.

The politician added that the conflicts in the war-torn states the refugees come from should be over within that time-frame.

“In specific terms, we need instead of reunification of migrant families, to repatriate these several hundred thousand refugees within the next three years,” Bavarian FM Marcus Söder said.

“We’ve given many people temporary protection from civil wars, but if the situations in their home countries improve, they should return there to rebuild their homelands. The Asylum Procedure Law stipulates that people should return to their homeland when they no longer need to flee,” he stressed, while noting that some countries that the refugees come from, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, already have safe areas where migrants can go.

Germany accepted more than a million asylum seekers last year. Since the closure of the so-called Balkan route and signing of the refugee pact between the EU and Turkey, the number of refugees flowing into Europe has sharply dropped. Still, there are thousands of asylum seekers crammed into migrant camps all over Europe waiting to be granted the right to stay.

Söder further stated that even “the best of intentions do not have the power to successfully integrate so many people from a completely foreign culture,” pointing to the recently intensifying debate on Islamic attire worn in public places in Germany, especially full-face veils that are deemed to rob Muslim women of a “chance of integrating” into society. A new law is being mulled over by German authorities that would ban the burqa and niqab, garments worn by Muslim women that adhere to ultraconservative interpretations of Islam. Polls suggest that 81% of German citizens support the move, and Söder says he can be counted among them.

“Whoever wants to live here must adapt to our values – and not vice versa. The burqa is not compatible with Germany. If someone wants to keep wearing it, this someone should do it elsewhere,” the politician noted sharply.

I wonder of German courts will agree with that thinking? French courts did not.

The idea for the ban appeared after violent Islamist attacks were carried out in the German cities of Wurzburg and Ansbach this summer, for which Söder blames Merkel, saying that instead of trying to integrate refugees into German culture, the main priority of the government should be protecting the German population.

“It is therefore clear that a simple ‘we can do it’ is not enough,” Söder said.

“I think the citizens would have preferred a different message [from authorities] after the attacks, something like ‘we have realized [the threat].’ But we’re still waiting.”

Her initiative has met strong opposition from a number of European leaders, however, some of whom, like Söder, would prefer to talk about the repatriation and deportation of migrants instead. Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil has suggested that the EU should hold a “summit on deportation” to discuss steps that would speed up the process of returning refugees to their home countries, while slamming Angela Merkel’s “welcoming” approach as “irresponsible.”

The Czech Republic has also openly criticized the quota system, along with Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, which together form the so-called “Visegrad group” that opposes any mandated re-distribution of migrants across the EU.

The German state of Bavaria has been an outspoken critic of Merkel’s refugee policy over the past months. Last year, Bavarian leaders even threatening to sue the federal government if it failed to stem the influx of refugees. Back then, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann warned that if “effective measures” weren’t taken to deal with the crisis, Bavaria would take the matter to the Constitutional Court and charge the German government with endangering “the legal capacity of the German states to act independently.”

Terrorism #1 Concern of Germans, ‘One of Highest’ Results Ever – Poll

The New Normal - Germany

© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

Over 70 percent of respondents in a poll conducted in Germany say their prime concern is terrorism. The findings come as Europe reels from a string of violent attacks for which the the Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility in most cases.

“The fear of terrorist attacks is by far the number one concern, reaching with over 70 percent, one of the highest ever recorded in the long-term study,” Brigitte Romstedt, head of R+V Infocenter which carried out the study said.

Germany endured several terrorist attacks last year, including the deadly Christmas market assault, when a Tunisian asylum seeker, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State, plowed a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people. In July, a Syrian refugee detonated an explosive device outside a music festival in the town of Ansbach, killing himself and injuring 12 others.

In another July 2016 incident, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked train passengers in central Germany, leaving five people injured. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for all the attacks.

According to R+V Infocenter researchers which interviewed 2,380 people in June and July, the fear of terrorism has surpassed the threat of "political extremism," 62 percent. Possible tensions caused by the influx of migrants has 61 percent of Germans apprehensive.

The European debt crisis gave cause for concern to some 58 percent of Germans, with 50 percent of respondents being anxious over the growing cost of living. Natural disasters proved to be a major concern for 56 percent, a four percent rise compared to 2016.

However, another survey carried out in Germany in August showed that most Germans perceive climate change as a greater cause for concern than terrorism. Yet, it was still high on the list of concerns, with the massive migrant influx and subsequent refugee crisis placed further behind.

Both polls that showed German's anxiety about terrorism, were conducted before the recent deadly vehicle ramming and knife attacks in Catalonia, Spain. On August 17, a man plowed a van through a crowd in Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring over 100 others. The next day, a ramming and stabbing attack took place in the nearby coastal town of Cambrils, with one person being killed and five others wounded. Both attacks were claimed by IS.

In late August, the US extended a European travel alert for its citizens, warning that terrorists continue to focus on tourist sites as attacks increase on the continent.

Although the 'Europe travel alert,' in place until the end of November, does not mention Germany among the "widely reported incidents" of terrorist attacks, the US State Department did warn its citizens that terrorist groups such as IS and al-Qaeda "have the ability to plan and execute terrorist attacks in Europe."

'Germany Should Send Back Foreigners to Save Lives, Stop Appeasing Islamists' – Bavarian MP

Finally, the conversation that should have

started last year begins

© Leonhard Foeger / Reuters

The fact that three of the terror attacks that shocked Germany last week took place in its largest state of Bavaria is a “nightmare” for locals, and shows a failure of the EU and Berlin to deal with migration, Thomas Jahn of the CSU party told RT.

Jahn, a vice chairman of Bavaria’s dominant Christian Social Union (CSU) conservative campaign, lambasted the migration policy pursued by Angela Merkel – the chair of his party’s traditional ally, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

“People in Bavaria and in [the] whole [of] Germany say that, of course, Mrs. Merkel has failed and, historically, the nation because she decided to ignore the German immigration law and she opened the borders of our country last year for two million immigrants from countries outside Europe,” Jahn said, adding that the government is to blame for the “nightmare” terror spate that has descended upon Germany.

“It’s really a nightmare [what] politicians brought to Germany and Bavaria, and people are very worried to be [the] next victims of terrorism in our country,” he said.

In order to prevent terror from spreading, Germany must secure its borders by introducing tougher border controls. In addition, Berlin must not hesitate to deport all new arrivals who could pose a threat to the country’s security, the MP argued.

“We need to control our borders, that is the most important thing at the moment, and we need to send...the dangerous people with Islamist ideology back to the countries outside Europe and [the] European Union,” the politician said.

While Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Hermann, has suggested that Germany’s internal army could be deployed to tackle major terror threats, Jahn believes such a move would be an “overreaction.” Instead, he says authorities should focus on expanding existing resources – particularly giving more powers to the police force.

“We have to give our police more rights,” Jahn stressed, before adding that “we have to send back foreigners very quickly, back to their countries, to save our lives and save security in our countries.”

Although the majority of Bavarian attackers were not German nationals, having fled war-torn regions of Afghanistan and Syria to resettle in Europe, the issue of home-grown terrorism inspired by violent Islam should not be ignored, Jahn said.

“The problem is that we have some kind of ideologies, we have some kind of Islamist ideologies that we never controlled in the last few years, we don’t have much attention on it,” Jahn said, adding that the advancement of extremist teachings within Europe should serve as “one of the greatest reasons we have to stop this kind of appeasement policy in Europe.”

In the wake of the attacks that rocked the Bavarian cities of Wurzburg, Munich, and Ansbach – at least two of which were linked to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) – Bavarian Governor Horst Seehofer said that “Islamist terrorism has arrived in Germany,” adding that Germans are “full of fear” as they face “an entirely new dimension of terrorism – the Islamist-minded terrorism.”

Hermann echoed Seehofer’s statement, proposing that Berlin deny entry to all asylum seekers who cannot prove their identity with a valid ID.

“Deportation into a war zone should not be taboo as well,” he stressed in an interview to Suddeutsche Zeitung, referring to refugees who do not abide by German law.

“You have to seriously consider how such people should be treated if they violate laws or pose a threat,” he said.

Two Teens Planning ‘ISIS-Inspired’ Attack Arrested in Germany

    © Rüdiger Gaertner / YouTube

Authorities in the southern German state of Baden-Wurttemberg have detained two teenagers aged 15 and 17 who allegedly plotted to stage Islamic State-inspired attacks on “public institutions.”

The arrests of the teenagers took place during raids on Thursday near Aschaffenburg and Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, all in the vicinity of Frankfurt.

Both teens “were planning an Islamist-motivated attack on a public institution in the district of Aschaffenburg, for which they wanted to procure firearms,” Karlsruhe prosecutor's office announced on Friday.

While the identities of the arrested teenagers have not been disclosed, the prosecutors did point out that at least one of those detained had displayed “indications” of mental illness.

Militant Muslims are all mentally ill! I'm not the only one who thinks so: 

“I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…impossible…

for any human being to read the biography of Mohammed and believe in it,

and then emerge a psychologically and mentally healthy person.” 

- Syrian Psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan

However, the authorities said that there were no signs that the accused “at this time had been able to implement the suspected plans.” However, they noted that the very planning of an attack still amounts to a crime.

Police said that during the arrests, they recovered extremist propaganda and ISIS flags. The suspects’ electronic data storage devices and mobile phones were also confiscated, but no firearms were found.

    Ashaffenburg Christmas market

Germany has been on high alert following a number of terrorist attacks on its territory and across the EU this year.

On July 24, 15 people were injured in a suicide bombing outside a wine bar in Ansbach. The bomber, identified as Mohammad Daleel, was a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Prior to that, some nine days earlier, Pakistani national Riaz Khan Ahmadzai attacked passengers on a train in Wurzburg with an ax and a knife, wounding five.

Anti-terror raids across the country have intensified since then and have led to arrests of suspected IS operatives and people believed to have been influenced by jihadist ideology.

Overall, Europe remains on guard, especially for the holiday season, following a series of deadly terrorist attacks stretching back to 2015.

    Ashaffenburg, Germany