Making Sense of Jihad

European News Roundup

From Spain: reports of a suspected AQIM cell broken up earlier today:

In Tuesday's police action, Operacion Submarino, four suspects were arrested in the northern city of Pamplona, three were arrested in Barcelona and one was captured in the north-east province of Castellon...

Ten other people were detained by Spanish police and suspected of helping the eight who were arrested.

So far in 2008, 27 suspected Islamist militants have been detained in Spain, most of them of Moroccan and Algerian descent.

From France:  news that the Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF), a Muslim Brotherhood front group, has gained political ground within the government's authorized Muslim organization:

Considered part of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement which seeks to introduce elements of Islamic law by political means, the UOIF took 30 percent of the vote, making it the second force on the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM).

It came behind the Moroccan-linked Rally of French Muslims (RMF) which won 43 percent of votes, and ahead of the Turkish Muslim federation on 12 percent, official figures showed.

The CFCM's 41 elected and 17 permanent board members now vote on June 22 to elect a new head since the two-term incumbent, the moderate rector of the Paris mosque Dalil Boubakeur, is not standing.

The Muslim council was set up five years ago by then interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy to bring together the rival currents in French Islam.

But tensions between Algerians, the larger community with an estimated 3.5 million people in France, and Moroccans, numbered at one million, have hobbled the project from the start.

European News Roundup

AKI reports on a new German government report from the Office of Protection of the Constitution:

As an example, the report mentioned the arrests of militants on 4 September 2007, when three individuals allegedly planned attacks on American institutions in Germany and were caught with bomb-making material.

By the end of 2007 there were 30 nationwide active Islamist organisations said the report, an increase of two from the previous year.

Among them, 1,390 active followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, and about 900 followers of Lebanese Shia radical group Hezbollah.

The report mentions Chechen militants but it said their followers in Germany have so far done it without violence.

According to this bizarre story at Expatica, a 73-year-old German man has been charged with spying for Saudi Arabia:

The man, whose name remains a secret, is alleged to have regularly provided information to Saudi agents in Berlin from December 2003 to March 2007 in return for money and other benefits.

According to the charges, the man evaluated press reports and newspapers on the internet. He is also suspected of providing information about individuals, events and organizations of particular interest to the Saudis

Another AKI report notes a new policy in Denmark banning judges from wearing of any religious symbols in court:

On Wednesday justice minister Lene Espersen said a bill was due later this year that would regulate what judges should wear.

But in a dissenting view, the refugee, immigration and integration affairs minister Birthe Ronn Hornbech attacked the DPP proposal as "anti-Muslim". She said judges should themselves be allowed to decide what to wear.

Jorgen Lougart, chairman of the association of Danish judges has questioned the government's plans, noting that religious dress was "not really an issue" because none of its members had recently converted to other religions.

European News Roundup

AKI reports on the failed efforts to grow a mosque in Italy, including this telling detail on a recent survey
The survey found that 31 percent of Italians are against the construction of new mosques because they are afraid of intolerance of Catholicism and possible terrorist attacks by Islamists.

But non-Muslim immigrants showed even less tolerance than their Italian counterparts and 50 percent of them rejected the idea of opening new mosques.

Expatica has links to German reports of online jihadist (or whatever it is we're supposed to call them) activity, including a recent call for jihad (or whatever it is we're supposed to call it) in Afghanistan-Pakistan posted to a German website.

Jamestown Foundation reports on a recent Europol analysis of trends in jihadi terrorist in Europe:

Islamist terrorism was statistically much less significant. Only four attacks were recorded: Two failed bombings in the United Kingdom (the Glasgow attacks), and two foiled plots in Germany (the Sauerland cell) and Denmark (the Glasvej case). The number of arrests could indicate a general decrease in jihadi activities. Indeed, EU police forces arrested 201 jihadi suspects, 56 fewer than in 2006. However, it should be mentioned that these numbers do not include arrests in Great Britain, which refuses to communicate precise statistics, although Britain did indicate a 30 percent increase in jihadi arrests. Including the British data could result in an increase of the arrests between 2006 and 2007.

Despite the comparatively low number of attacks, Islamist terrorism is still perceived as the main threat to European security. The reason for this assessment cannot be measured in number of attacks or arrests; it is an estimate of potential damages. “Most investigations into failed and foiled Islamist terrorist attacks in the EU in 2007 showed that Islamist terrorists continue to aim at causing indiscriminate mass casualties,” claims the report. “This is not only observed in the choice of targets but also in the methods and explosives used.”

European News Roundup

El Pais reports on new charges against Imad Eddin Barakat (aka Abu Dahdah). 

Barakat, a 45-year-old Syrian-born Spanish citizen who is currently serving a 12-year sentence for membership of a terrorist organisation, may stand trial again over alleged payments made while he was in prison in 2006 and 2007 that investigators claim went to finance terrorism.

Judge Moreno has charged Barakat and two alleged accomplices, Mohammed Ghaleb Kalaje and Bassam Dalati, with collaborating with a terrorist group for a second time.

The judge claims that the three used relatives to strip Kalaje's real estate firm of its assets, cashing 33 checks worth EUR 2.4 million over the course of two years.

Apparently prison does nothing to reform jihadis. Who knew?

There's this story from German news agency about three Turkish-born men accused of raising money for a charity "with an Islamic focus," whatever that means:

The Turkish-born men are alleged to have removed 18.6 million euros ($29.7 million) in cash from the bank accounts of German-registered association Deniz Feneri. Prosecutors said some of the cash was smuggled to Turkey.

The charity raised foreign-relief funds among well-off Turkish communities on a Deniz Feneri television program. The title means lighthouse. Advertisements on the Internet, in the press and on a Dutch-based television channel Euro 7 used images of suffering in Turkey, Pakistan and other nations, prosecutors said.

Police established that donations to Deniz Feneri from early 2002 until the end of April 2007, when an inquiry into the charity became public, had totaled 41 million euros.

And AKI reported last week on country-wide raids in Germany "as part of a probe into an alleged radical Islamist group believed to be recruiting militants for 'Jihad' abroad."

The raids were part of an investigation into nine citizens suspected of systematically trying to convert others to radical Islam and recruiting militants for Jihad overseas, according to German authorities quoted by Deutsche Welle Radio.

European News Roundup

UK.  Summary of news related to a senior Al Qaeda planner's association with the UK cell targeting airliners. (British Jihad and Islamism Watch)

Italy. April 10 arrest of a north African allegedly involved in the overseeing the transit of suicide bombers into Iraq and Afghanistan.  (AKI)

Austria.  Weapons cache seized.  (IHT)

UK/Europe.  RAND Europe just released a report on prison radicalization. (HSDL)