*** And Canada has nothing like this - absolutely nothing. We're still stuck in the past thinking that we can arrest the problem away. What will it take for us to wake up and realize we should be PROACTIVE with this issue? MS ***
FROM: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100719/world/eu_germany_islamic_extremists
BERLIN - Germany's domestic intelligence service on Monday started a program for Islamist radicals who want to quit extremism, an initiative under which people will be offered help finding new jobs and moving home.
A spokeswoman for the agency, who was talking on condition of anonymity in line with agency policy, declined to say how much money had been allocated or how many employees were working for the program.
However, she said the agency would guarantee confidentiality to users, and also help with safety measures if people seeking to quit are threatened by radicals.
"Our program is an offer for those who want to leave extremism behind," she said. "Once we find out what their needs are, we will develop the program accordingly."
The intelligence service estimates there are more than 36,000 Islamist extremists in Germany, but only a fraction of those are considered potentially violent. The Muslim population in Germany is estimated to be between 3.8 million and 4.3 million — meaning Muslims make up between 4.6 and 5.2 per cent of the population.
The program, which is called HATIF — meaning phone in Arabic — also is aimed at family members or friends of people who have come under influence of extremists.
They can contact members of the intelligence service online or call a specific number. The service is offered in German, Turkish and Arabic.
Germany has not seen a large-scale terror attack, but in recent years, there have been attempts to commit attacks on public transportation and U.S. military bases.
Countries like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Singapore have also implemented deradicalization programs in recent years, but they mainly work with convicted terrorists in prisons, while Germany tries to reach out to extremists before they commit a crime, said Peter Neumann, an expert from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence in London. He said there are no similar programs in other European countries so far.
"We know that in almost all of these groups, there are people who want to leave, but it is not easy to get out of such an environment," he said. "Therefore it is great that Germany makes this offer — even though this definitely won't lead to the end of radical Islam in Germany."
Showing posts with label radicalization in europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radicalization in europe. Show all posts
Monday, July 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
LONDONISTAN : THREAT FROM THE UK ?
FROM: http://news.rediff.com/interview/2009/dec/31/americans-blame-uk-for-rise-in-islamic-extremism.htm
Accusing Britain of being a "menace to the outside world", Americans have blamed their closest ally in Europe for the rise of Islamic extremism amid growing anger over the UK's perceived failure to tackle extremism.
Senior policymakers in the United States point to the recent attempt to bomb a transatlantic jetliner by Nigerian man Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is thought to have become radicalised in London.
They said it was further evidence that one of the biggest threats to US security came from Britain, where the capital has been dubbed "Londonistan" by critics.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, they also criticised the "ghettoisation" of British Muslims, compared with the "assimilation" of Muslims in America.
Muslim immigrants to the US were much better integrated in society and considered themselves Americans "within a generation" because the US embraced the "melting pot" concept, Marc Thiessen, former chief speechwriter for President George W Bush and a former Pentagon aide, was quoted as saying by the British daily.
"The British have an immense problem. There are more challenges in Muslim immigrants integrating into British society than there is in America, a lack of assimilation, a great deal of alienation," said Charles Allen, a recently-retired veteran Central Intelligence Agency officer who was intelligence chief at the department of homeland security under Bush.
British universities are coming under the spotlight in the anti-terrorism campaign, with critics calling them a hotbed of extremism.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown [ Images ] recently highlighted the universities as one of the key areas where authorities needed to act against extremist influences.
The failed suicide bomber Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society at University College London between 2006 and 2007, while he was studying for an engineering degree, the report said.
"The UK is a menace to the outside world. It's been a problem for years now. This is just one more example," said Daniel Pipes, a scholar on radical Islam and former adviser to Rudolph Giuliani during his presidential campaign, said.
Professor Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, has suggested that dozens of British universities have become a breeding ground for extremists.
"The problem stems from the fact that extremists and extremist recruiters have seen universities as safe spaces from which to recruit students," Glees said, adding authorities are "not properly supervising what goes on at campuses, they weren't and they're still not, and it is clear they don't intend to do so in the future."
Though the UK Home Office refused Abdulmutallab a student visa in May and put him on an immigration watch list, they did not pass this information to the US.
Thiessen underlined that the US was "in grave danger" as "we are lowering our defences" "in response to the hue and cry from the European Left and to appease European opinion".
As a result, the Al Qaeda [ Images ] had "worked much harder to get Westerners, people who live in the West, who may be citizens of the West" to become recruits and train in places like the tribal areas of Pakistan and Yemen, he said.
Accusing Britain of being a "menace to the outside world", Americans have blamed their closest ally in Europe for the rise of Islamic extremism amid growing anger over the UK's perceived failure to tackle extremism.
Senior policymakers in the United States point to the recent attempt to bomb a transatlantic jetliner by Nigerian man Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is thought to have become radicalised in London.
They said it was further evidence that one of the biggest threats to US security came from Britain, where the capital has been dubbed "Londonistan" by critics.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, they also criticised the "ghettoisation" of British Muslims, compared with the "assimilation" of Muslims in America.
Muslim immigrants to the US were much better integrated in society and considered themselves Americans "within a generation" because the US embraced the "melting pot" concept, Marc Thiessen, former chief speechwriter for President George W Bush and a former Pentagon aide, was quoted as saying by the British daily.
"The British have an immense problem. There are more challenges in Muslim immigrants integrating into British society than there is in America, a lack of assimilation, a great deal of alienation," said Charles Allen, a recently-retired veteran Central Intelligence Agency officer who was intelligence chief at the department of homeland security under Bush.
British universities are coming under the spotlight in the anti-terrorism campaign, with critics calling them a hotbed of extremism.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown [ Images ] recently highlighted the universities as one of the key areas where authorities needed to act against extremist influences.
The failed suicide bomber Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society at University College London between 2006 and 2007, while he was studying for an engineering degree, the report said.
"The UK is a menace to the outside world. It's been a problem for years now. This is just one more example," said Daniel Pipes, a scholar on radical Islam and former adviser to Rudolph Giuliani during his presidential campaign, said.
Professor Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, has suggested that dozens of British universities have become a breeding ground for extremists.
"The problem stems from the fact that extremists and extremist recruiters have seen universities as safe spaces from which to recruit students," Glees said, adding authorities are "not properly supervising what goes on at campuses, they weren't and they're still not, and it is clear they don't intend to do so in the future."
Though the UK Home Office refused Abdulmutallab a student visa in May and put him on an immigration watch list, they did not pass this information to the US.
Thiessen underlined that the US was "in grave danger" as "we are lowering our defences" "in response to the hue and cry from the European Left and to appease European opinion".
As a result, the Al Qaeda [ Images ] had "worked much harder to get Westerners, people who live in the West, who may be citizens of the West" to become recruits and train in places like the tribal areas of Pakistan and Yemen, he said.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
BRITISH HUB OF AQ IN WEST
FROM: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6998580/British-al-Qaeda-hub-is-biggest-in-West.html
Britain has the greatest number of Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda of any Western country and poses a grave risk to international security, the US government believes.
Terrorist groups are using the UK as a base to plot terrorism attacks around the world, American officials have disclosed.
The level of al-Qaeda activity in the UK is a “major source of concern” in Washington.
American leaders believe Gordon Brown's government is failing to combat the threat of extremism among Muslims living in Britain.
“The UK has the greatest concentration of active al-Qaeda supporters of any Western country,” a senior US official told the Daily Telegraph.
“As a result, no Western country has been more threatened than the UK, but the UK-based al-Qaeda network poses not only a potent threat to Britain but to the rest of the world.”
The disclosure of American fears will increase Transatlantic tensions over the attempted terrorist attack on an airliner over Detroit last month.
The would-be suicide bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has said his attack was inspired and directed by al-Qaeda.
It has been claimed he was radicalised in London, where the bomber, a Nigerian, was a student between 2005 and 2008. British officials insist that he became a terrorist in Yemen.
American officials believe that European Muslims are more likely than their counterparts in the United States to subscribe to extremist doctrines.
The US prides itself on “assimilating” all immigrant groups into mainstream culture, while European nations including Britain have pursued a policy of multiculturalism. Critics say it leaves Muslims at risk of being alienated from wider society and susceptible to radical movements. (MS: Blaming multiculturalism again? Assimilation the only way? I respectfully disagree. Look more into what causes this "alienation from wider society" - does that just happen all of a sudden? No it does not.)
“The level of al-Qaeda activity in Britain is becoming a major source of concern,” said a senior State Department official.
“The organisation’s ability to use Britain as a base to plot terror attacks constitutes a serious threat to the security of Britain and other Western countries.”
The failed Detroit attack has renewed international attention on Britain’s record in dealing with international terrorism.
Abdulmutallab’s attack was the third al-Qaeda attempt to bring down a US-bound plane linked to Britain. In 2001, Richard Reid, from London, tried to explode a bomb hidden in his shoe on a flight to Miami.
In 2006, a plot by Islamic extremists to blow up transatlantic airliners using homemade liquid bombs was foiled.
Among some US politicians and security experts, the British capital has been dubbed “Londonistan” because of the presence of so many radical Muslims and mosques with connections to extremist preachers.
British universities are a particular concern. Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society at University College London between 2006 and 2007, while he was studying for an engineering degree. UCL, together with many other British universities, has been accused of failing to stop radical preachers giving talks on campus for fear of being accused of Islamophobia. (MS: There IS a way to walk the line...but my suggestions may not be appropriate for the public sphere. Rest assured, it does not have to be one way or the highway.)
Although the July 7 attacks in London in 2005 were the only fatal al-Qaeda attacks in the UK, many other plots have been disrupted. In 2006, British police disrupted an al-Qaeda plot to explode liquid bombs on several Transatlantic airliners, an operation officers said could have killed thousands of people.
Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, has said that his service was aware of around 2,000 radicalised Muslims in Britain who might be involved in terrorism plots.
The Security Service has not updated that number since, but American officials believe it is now even higher. (MS: Believe it.)
United States intelligence officers are also gravely concerned about the number of British Muslims travelling to Yemen to become involved in extremist activity. Yemen is emerging as a focus for international counter-terrorism, as intensive military activity forces al-Qaeda to reduce its activity on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Yesterday, launching his party’s new national security strategy, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, suggested that immigration systems are allowing dangerous extremists to enter the UK.
“There’s not much point having tougher laws to deport people who are a threat to Britain if at the same time we don’t have a proper border police force to stop unwanted people from coming in,” he said.
The stark American assessment of Britain’s position is, however, at odds with the optimism of British officials.
Last year, the official UK “threat level” was lowered, and Whitehall officials have claimed that British intelligence agencies have identified every significant terrorist cell in the country.
Earlier this month, relations between London and Washington were strained over just what information about Abdulmutallab had been passed to the US authorities by British intelligence agencies.
Downing Street has said that more than a years ago, MI5 passed on “security information” about Abdulmutallab’s links to radical preachers. However, US officials have insisted that any information passed on did not identify him as a potential terrorist.
Britain has the greatest number of Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda of any Western country and poses a grave risk to international security, the US government believes.
Terrorist groups are using the UK as a base to plot terrorism attacks around the world, American officials have disclosed.
The level of al-Qaeda activity in the UK is a “major source of concern” in Washington.
American leaders believe Gordon Brown's government is failing to combat the threat of extremism among Muslims living in Britain.
“The UK has the greatest concentration of active al-Qaeda supporters of any Western country,” a senior US official told the Daily Telegraph.
“As a result, no Western country has been more threatened than the UK, but the UK-based al-Qaeda network poses not only a potent threat to Britain but to the rest of the world.”
The disclosure of American fears will increase Transatlantic tensions over the attempted terrorist attack on an airliner over Detroit last month.
The would-be suicide bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has said his attack was inspired and directed by al-Qaeda.
It has been claimed he was radicalised in London, where the bomber, a Nigerian, was a student between 2005 and 2008. British officials insist that he became a terrorist in Yemen.
American officials believe that European Muslims are more likely than their counterparts in the United States to subscribe to extremist doctrines.
The US prides itself on “assimilating” all immigrant groups into mainstream culture, while European nations including Britain have pursued a policy of multiculturalism. Critics say it leaves Muslims at risk of being alienated from wider society and susceptible to radical movements. (MS: Blaming multiculturalism again? Assimilation the only way? I respectfully disagree. Look more into what causes this "alienation from wider society" - does that just happen all of a sudden? No it does not.)
“The level of al-Qaeda activity in Britain is becoming a major source of concern,” said a senior State Department official.
“The organisation’s ability to use Britain as a base to plot terror attacks constitutes a serious threat to the security of Britain and other Western countries.”
The failed Detroit attack has renewed international attention on Britain’s record in dealing with international terrorism.
Abdulmutallab’s attack was the third al-Qaeda attempt to bring down a US-bound plane linked to Britain. In 2001, Richard Reid, from London, tried to explode a bomb hidden in his shoe on a flight to Miami.
In 2006, a plot by Islamic extremists to blow up transatlantic airliners using homemade liquid bombs was foiled.
Among some US politicians and security experts, the British capital has been dubbed “Londonistan” because of the presence of so many radical Muslims and mosques with connections to extremist preachers.
British universities are a particular concern. Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society at University College London between 2006 and 2007, while he was studying for an engineering degree. UCL, together with many other British universities, has been accused of failing to stop radical preachers giving talks on campus for fear of being accused of Islamophobia. (MS: There IS a way to walk the line...but my suggestions may not be appropriate for the public sphere. Rest assured, it does not have to be one way or the highway.)
Although the July 7 attacks in London in 2005 were the only fatal al-Qaeda attacks in the UK, many other plots have been disrupted. In 2006, British police disrupted an al-Qaeda plot to explode liquid bombs on several Transatlantic airliners, an operation officers said could have killed thousands of people.
Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, has said that his service was aware of around 2,000 radicalised Muslims in Britain who might be involved in terrorism plots.
The Security Service has not updated that number since, but American officials believe it is now even higher. (MS: Believe it.)
United States intelligence officers are also gravely concerned about the number of British Muslims travelling to Yemen to become involved in extremist activity. Yemen is emerging as a focus for international counter-terrorism, as intensive military activity forces al-Qaeda to reduce its activity on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Yesterday, launching his party’s new national security strategy, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, suggested that immigration systems are allowing dangerous extremists to enter the UK.
“There’s not much point having tougher laws to deport people who are a threat to Britain if at the same time we don’t have a proper border police force to stop unwanted people from coming in,” he said.
The stark American assessment of Britain’s position is, however, at odds with the optimism of British officials.
Last year, the official UK “threat level” was lowered, and Whitehall officials have claimed that British intelligence agencies have identified every significant terrorist cell in the country.
Earlier this month, relations between London and Washington were strained over just what information about Abdulmutallab had been passed to the US authorities by British intelligence agencies.
Downing Street has said that more than a years ago, MI5 passed on “security information” about Abdulmutallab’s links to radical preachers. However, US officials have insisted that any information passed on did not identify him as a potential terrorist.
EAST AFRICAN TERRORISM COMES TO SCANDINAVIA
FROM: Jamestown Foundation - January 14, 2010 - Volume VIII, Issue 2
Raffaello Pantucci
In a scene right out of the cinema, a young Somali man armed with an axe and a knife came crashing through the door of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard’s Aarhus house late on January 1. Hitting a panic button specially installed in the house, Mr Westergaard was barely able to scramble with his five-year old granddaughter to his safe room while security services raced to the scene. Hearing police arrive, the young man turned to confront them, bellowing “I’ll be back” in broken Danish before being shot in the arm and leg by police.
This is the first time that Islamists seeking revenge for the infamous “Muhammad cartoons” have been able to take revenge in the West. Previous bombing plots were broken up in Denmark in September 2006 and September 2007, with convictions resulting in both cases, and prosecutors claiming that the cartoons were definitely the motivation for the plotters in the second of the two cases (AP, August 11, 2008). In July 2008, two Tunisian men were picked up by Danish police in Aarhus as part of an alleged plot targeting Westergaard, though charges did not stick. In the end, one man was deported and the other released (AP, January 2). Late last year, the FBI arrested David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana on charges (amongst others) that they were planning a terror attack on the “facilities and employees of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten.” [1] Jyllands-Posten was the newspaper that first published the cartoons while Kurt Westergaard is the most prominent of a group of 12 cartoonists who accepted the editor’s challenge to depict images they associated with the Prophet Muhammad. In hiding until last year, Mr Westergaard announced that he was emerging from seclusion as he was “too old to be afraid” and he wanted to play his part in defending “democratic values” (BBC, April 5, 2009).
In parallel to this growing threat, Danes have watched recently as a network has been uncovered linking their nation to war-torn Somalia and the al-Qaeda-inspired al Shabaab. On December 3, 2009, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a Mogadishu medical school graduation ceremony, including three ministers of the transitional government. It was revealed soon afterwards that the bomber, who allegedly wore a burqa while carrying out the attack, was a Danish-Somali man known to the Politiets Efterretningstjeneste (Danish Security Intelligence Service - PET) (Somaliland Press, December 9, 2009; Reuters, December 11, 2009).
This was not the first time that alleged Shabaab-linked Somalis with Danish residency permits have been discovered plotting. In August 2009, ahead of a visit to East Africa by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Kenyan security forces broke up a cell that included Somalis with Danish ties (The Australian, September 8, 2009). What has set alarm bells ringing, however, is the revelation that Westergaard’s attacker was one of the members of this Kenyan cell, but had been released after authorities could not find evidence of his involvement in the plot (Copenhagen Post, January 5).
While it quickly emerged that the man, now identified in the Kenyan press as Muhammad Muhideen Gelle, was already known to the PET as an individual with links to al-Shabaab, what has increasingly surprised people is the depth of his connections to previous Danish plotters (AP, January 4). According to a report from neighboring Sweden, Gelle was allegedly seen in the company of the Danish Mogadishu bomber on a fundraising trip in that country last year (Spiegel, January 6). It is unclear whether this was in connection to the Shabaab network that was apparently established by senior Shabaab leader Fu’ad Muhammad Qalaf, who served as an imam at the Rinkeby mosque in Stockholm for many years (Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, August 12, 2009).
Gelle is nicknamed Abdi or MMG by the Danish press, which cannot report his name due to court injunctions. Gelle is believed to have arrived in Denmark in 1997 as part of a group of 38 refugees from war-torn Somalia. He distinguished himself from the rest of the group by learning Danish rapidly and getting good grades in school before graduating to become a caregiver for the elderly, a tutor to younger kids and marrying “the sweetest girl in Aarlborg.” The two had three children together (Ekstra Bladet, January 5). One report said that he continued his work in the community right up to the day before the attack, serving as a temp at a Danish Red Cross center for young immigrants (Jyllands-Posten, January 7).
According to his family, by 2006 things had started to change, in particular after a series of recruitment attempts by the PET (Danmarks Radio, January 5). Gelle started to become more radical and introverted, talking about going back to fight in his homeland of Somalia. He is alleged to have gone to join the fighting at least twice, once returning injured to Aarlborg, where he was apparently spotted attempting to recruit fellow countrymen to the war. His marriage did not survive his newfound religiosity or bellicose desires and the two divorced last year when he moved to Copenhagen, reportedly to support himself as an IT programmer (Ekstra Bladet, January 5). Then in September he was picked up in Kenya and repatriated to Denmark, where he apparently continued to operate as part of a network under PET surveillance.
While al-Shabaab did not officially claim the attack on Westergaard, spokesman Shaykh Ali Mahmud Raage (a.ka.Shaykh Ali Dheere) was reported as saying, “We appreciate the incident in which a Muslim Somali boy attacked the devil who abused our prophet.” He then seemed to make a tacit admission: “There could be some people who might say that boy was related to Shabaab” (AFP, January 3). It is unclear at this stage whether this was a planned attack or a frenzied effort by a single individual linked to Shabaab’s international network – though if it was an organized attack it would mark an escalation in Shabaab’s activities, which have, for the most part, confined themselves to Somalia and its immediate vicinity.
What is clear, however, is that operational networks do exist which link al-Shabaab to Somali diaspora communities in the Nordic countries. Sweden’s security services have repeatedly warned of this threat, while Danish security services have found themselves very busy in the wake of the cartoons. Both have increased their focus on their respective domestic Somali communities. It has been estimated that there are about 20,000 Somalis in each nation, though figures are unreliable. What has alarmed Swedish forces, however, is the growing evidence that non-Somalis are being attracted to the fight from Sweden, something that is supported by a Danish report which claims Somalia is now being seen as the exciting jihad hotspot among young radicals. While the actual numbers are quite small (Sweden claims some 10 nationals are currently in Somalia, and the number from Denmark is unlikely to be much higher), the connection does raise the worrying prospect that al-Shabaab or a similar group might attempt to manipulate the network to carry out an attack in Europe. For Kurt Westergaard, this attack will likely not be the last attempt on his life, given the Islamists’ long memories and the fact that, unlike the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the death threat here does not have a main source (i.e. the Iranian Ayatollahs) capable of rescinding it.
Raffaello Pantucci is a Consulting Research Associate with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and an EU Science and Technology Fellowship Programme (China) Research Fellow.
Notes:
1. Department of Justice, “Two Chicago men charged in connection with alleged roles in foreign terror plot that focused on targets in Denmark,” October 27, 2009: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/October/09-nsd-1157.html. Translations of the Danish news stories can be found: http://islamineurope.blogspot.com.
Raffaello Pantucci
In a scene right out of the cinema, a young Somali man armed with an axe and a knife came crashing through the door of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard’s Aarhus house late on January 1. Hitting a panic button specially installed in the house, Mr Westergaard was barely able to scramble with his five-year old granddaughter to his safe room while security services raced to the scene. Hearing police arrive, the young man turned to confront them, bellowing “I’ll be back” in broken Danish before being shot in the arm and leg by police.
This is the first time that Islamists seeking revenge for the infamous “Muhammad cartoons” have been able to take revenge in the West. Previous bombing plots were broken up in Denmark in September 2006 and September 2007, with convictions resulting in both cases, and prosecutors claiming that the cartoons were definitely the motivation for the plotters in the second of the two cases (AP, August 11, 2008). In July 2008, two Tunisian men were picked up by Danish police in Aarhus as part of an alleged plot targeting Westergaard, though charges did not stick. In the end, one man was deported and the other released (AP, January 2). Late last year, the FBI arrested David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana on charges (amongst others) that they were planning a terror attack on the “facilities and employees of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten.” [1] Jyllands-Posten was the newspaper that first published the cartoons while Kurt Westergaard is the most prominent of a group of 12 cartoonists who accepted the editor’s challenge to depict images they associated with the Prophet Muhammad. In hiding until last year, Mr Westergaard announced that he was emerging from seclusion as he was “too old to be afraid” and he wanted to play his part in defending “democratic values” (BBC, April 5, 2009).
In parallel to this growing threat, Danes have watched recently as a network has been uncovered linking their nation to war-torn Somalia and the al-Qaeda-inspired al Shabaab. On December 3, 2009, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a Mogadishu medical school graduation ceremony, including three ministers of the transitional government. It was revealed soon afterwards that the bomber, who allegedly wore a burqa while carrying out the attack, was a Danish-Somali man known to the Politiets Efterretningstjeneste (Danish Security Intelligence Service - PET) (Somaliland Press, December 9, 2009; Reuters, December 11, 2009).
This was not the first time that alleged Shabaab-linked Somalis with Danish residency permits have been discovered plotting. In August 2009, ahead of a visit to East Africa by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Kenyan security forces broke up a cell that included Somalis with Danish ties (The Australian, September 8, 2009). What has set alarm bells ringing, however, is the revelation that Westergaard’s attacker was one of the members of this Kenyan cell, but had been released after authorities could not find evidence of his involvement in the plot (Copenhagen Post, January 5).
While it quickly emerged that the man, now identified in the Kenyan press as Muhammad Muhideen Gelle, was already known to the PET as an individual with links to al-Shabaab, what has increasingly surprised people is the depth of his connections to previous Danish plotters (AP, January 4). According to a report from neighboring Sweden, Gelle was allegedly seen in the company of the Danish Mogadishu bomber on a fundraising trip in that country last year (Spiegel, January 6). It is unclear whether this was in connection to the Shabaab network that was apparently established by senior Shabaab leader Fu’ad Muhammad Qalaf, who served as an imam at the Rinkeby mosque in Stockholm for many years (Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, August 12, 2009).
Gelle is nicknamed Abdi or MMG by the Danish press, which cannot report his name due to court injunctions. Gelle is believed to have arrived in Denmark in 1997 as part of a group of 38 refugees from war-torn Somalia. He distinguished himself from the rest of the group by learning Danish rapidly and getting good grades in school before graduating to become a caregiver for the elderly, a tutor to younger kids and marrying “the sweetest girl in Aarlborg.” The two had three children together (Ekstra Bladet, January 5). One report said that he continued his work in the community right up to the day before the attack, serving as a temp at a Danish Red Cross center for young immigrants (Jyllands-Posten, January 7).
According to his family, by 2006 things had started to change, in particular after a series of recruitment attempts by the PET (Danmarks Radio, January 5). Gelle started to become more radical and introverted, talking about going back to fight in his homeland of Somalia. He is alleged to have gone to join the fighting at least twice, once returning injured to Aarlborg, where he was apparently spotted attempting to recruit fellow countrymen to the war. His marriage did not survive his newfound religiosity or bellicose desires and the two divorced last year when he moved to Copenhagen, reportedly to support himself as an IT programmer (Ekstra Bladet, January 5). Then in September he was picked up in Kenya and repatriated to Denmark, where he apparently continued to operate as part of a network under PET surveillance.
While al-Shabaab did not officially claim the attack on Westergaard, spokesman Shaykh Ali Mahmud Raage (a.ka.Shaykh Ali Dheere) was reported as saying, “We appreciate the incident in which a Muslim Somali boy attacked the devil who abused our prophet.” He then seemed to make a tacit admission: “There could be some people who might say that boy was related to Shabaab” (AFP, January 3). It is unclear at this stage whether this was a planned attack or a frenzied effort by a single individual linked to Shabaab’s international network – though if it was an organized attack it would mark an escalation in Shabaab’s activities, which have, for the most part, confined themselves to Somalia and its immediate vicinity.
What is clear, however, is that operational networks do exist which link al-Shabaab to Somali diaspora communities in the Nordic countries. Sweden’s security services have repeatedly warned of this threat, while Danish security services have found themselves very busy in the wake of the cartoons. Both have increased their focus on their respective domestic Somali communities. It has been estimated that there are about 20,000 Somalis in each nation, though figures are unreliable. What has alarmed Swedish forces, however, is the growing evidence that non-Somalis are being attracted to the fight from Sweden, something that is supported by a Danish report which claims Somalia is now being seen as the exciting jihad hotspot among young radicals. While the actual numbers are quite small (Sweden claims some 10 nationals are currently in Somalia, and the number from Denmark is unlikely to be much higher), the connection does raise the worrying prospect that al-Shabaab or a similar group might attempt to manipulate the network to carry out an attack in Europe. For Kurt Westergaard, this attack will likely not be the last attempt on his life, given the Islamists’ long memories and the fact that, unlike the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the death threat here does not have a main source (i.e. the Iranian Ayatollahs) capable of rescinding it.
Raffaello Pantucci is a Consulting Research Associate with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and an EU Science and Technology Fellowship Programme (China) Research Fellow.
Notes:
1. Department of Justice, “Two Chicago men charged in connection with alleged roles in foreign terror plot that focused on targets in Denmark,” October 27, 2009: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/October/09-nsd-1157.html. Translations of the Danish news stories can be found: http://islamineurope.blogspot.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
