Germany and Europe are once again a target – DW – 27.08.2024

The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the knife attack in Solingen. According to Amak, the IS mouthpiece, the attack was carried out in “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere” and was directed against a “group of Christians”.

“Extremists are using the ongoing conflict in the Middle East to gain ground,” Thomas Mücke, who works for the Violence Prevention Network (VPN), told DW.an organization dedicated to preventing extremism and deradicalizing violent criminals. Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed numerous Israeli civilians and Israel responded with a counterattack in the Gaza Strip, Mücke has recorded “a quadrupling” of the number of attacks and attempted attacks in Western Europe compared to 2022.

The attack in Solingen is one of a series of Islamist attacks and attempted attacks across Europe in recent weeks, although it is not always clear whether IS is behind them.

On the same day as the attack in Solingen, two cars exploded in front of a synagogue in La Grande-Motte in southern France.

Shortly before two planned concerts by US singer Taylor Swift in Vienna in early August, Austrian authorities arrested two suspected IS sympathizers. The main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian with North Macedonian roots, said when he was arrested that he wanted to “kill himself and a large group of people,” according to Austrian state security. The concerts were canceled.

At the end of May, an Afghan living in Germany fatally wounded a police officer in Mannheim and seriously injured five other people. The target of the attack was the chairman of the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa. Although no direct links to IS could be established in this case, investigators classify the attack as “religiously motivated.”

Following this attack, authorities in Germany and France expressed serious concerns about IS violence during the European Football Championship in Germany and the Olympic Games in Paris. Both major events were peaceful, but perhaps only thanks to increased security measures and increased border controls.

Since October 7, 2023, authorities in Western Europe have documented seven attacks and 21 attempted or planned attacks. According to Mücke, the increase comes as no surprise: “IS has identified Western Europe as a target for attacks, obviously with the intention of spreading terror and fear, dividing society in order to be able to recruit even more people to its cause.”

The most serious attack claimed by IS in recent times did not occur in Western Europe, but in Moscow in March 2024, when more than 140 people were killed in a terrorist attack on a concert hall. “Islamic State soldiers attacked a large gathering of Christians, killing and injuring hundreds,” Amak reported.

Radicalization via the Internet

The terrorist organization gained worldwide notoriety ten years ago when its then leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the establishment of a “caliphate” in the Middle East. The following year, IS reached the peak of its power and took control of large parts of Syria and Iraq. Videos of brutal murders and executions were published on the Internet.

“IS constantly calls for such attacks with its Internet propaganda,” says Mücke, “and there are also precise instructions on how to carry out the attacks, such as using cars to kill infidels everywhere.”

A particularly gruesome case occurred in 2016, when an IS sympathizer drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market and killed twelve people.

Until 2019, many believed that IS had been militarily defeated in the Middle East. IS attacks in Europe also declined for a while. However, with the new wave of attacks, jihadism seems to have returned.

Mücke says the perpetrators have become younger, with two thirds of those arrested in Western Europe being teenagers. And the methods used to approach them are also tailored to their age. “The Internet plays a major role in radicalization and mobilization, but also in recruitment.”

A glimmer of hope: detecting radicalization early

Experts are pessimistic about the prospects for an early improvement. The escalation of the Middle East conflict from October 7, 2023 “will influence the dynamics of terrorism for years to come.”

Knife-free zones, as planned by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, are of little use in the view of many experts. Anyone who intends to kill people with a knife will hardly be deterred by such a ban, they believe.

Thomas Mücke from the Violence Prevention Network can nevertheless offer a glimmer of hope: “Since October 7, the number of calls to the advice centers has multiplied. And that gives us the information we need to be able to prevent radicalization at a relatively early stage.”

The fact that the perpetrators have become younger is also an opportunity, he says. “First of all, I am counting on the fact that people who become radicalized undergo a significant change in character and that this is also noticed by those around them,” he says.

“And it is important that these changes are reported as quickly as possible, that help and support are sought, because every extremist scene tries to address and recruit the younger generation in particular, they are the next generation. And this is where we still have the best chance of curbing extremism and terrorism.”

This article was originally written in German.

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