Why is Germany a hotbed for terrorism?
Michael Slackman reports on how Germany is a hotbed for home grown Islamic radicalism:
Although Germany has been spared the terrorist attacks that have hit the United States, Britain and Spain, Hamburg â?? and Germany in general â?? remains a breeding ground for Islamic radicals, security officials acknowledge. A spate of recent arrests and terrorism warnings in Europe and Afghanistan has underscored the risk that a small number of German citizens are under the sway of terrorist groups determined to stage new attacks, either in Germany or elsewhere in Europe.Officials in Hamburg emphasized that the vast majority of its Muslim population â?? which they put at 130,000 â?? rejected violence. But a Hamburg intelligence official said there were 2,000 residents who embrace radical ideology and another 45 who accept the ideology of Al Qaeda and global jihad.
â??Thatâ??s what we all experience in America and in other countries and also here, that this phenomenon of the homegrown terrorist increases rapidly,â? said the intelligence official, who spoke recently on the condition that he not be identified because of the secrecy of his work. â??This is an extremism which grows right here. The recruiting, the radicalization happens right here, not in other countries.â?
This again underscores a dubious argument often floated with respect to terrorism (and usually as a post-hoc justification for the invasion of Iraq): that democracy is an antidote to radicalism. But if German citizens, including those born and raised in the country, can turn to terrorism it's obvious that democracy isn't sufficient to quell their radicalism.
