Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told Reuters the country has documented fewer Germans leaving to join the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in the past few months.
Overall, the department claimed 720 Germans joined ISIS in the past year.
“This is the official count, but we have to assume that the real number is probably higher,” he explained. “We expect that the numbers will continue to increase, probably not as dramatically as we experienced last year, but ISIS, Syria and Iraq and this battlefield are still attractive for young people from Germany who want to become jihadists.”
The news comes out the same day a new video emerged from ISIS with two German-speaking militants. From The Daily Star:
In a rare German-language ISIS message, they urge their “brothers and sisters” in Germany and Austria to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq or commit attacks against “unbelievers” at home.
One of the men threatens Chancellor Angela Merkel, vowing to avenge the “blood of Muslims spilled in Afghanistan,” where Germany sent troops as part of a NATO force, and their support for the coalition against ISIS.
Only a few days ago, a German-Tunisian named Ebrahim B. released details about life with the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) after abandoning his duties as a jihadi for the group. He said he hopes his journey will change minds of young people who still want to join the terrorist group.
Ebrahim claims the group conned him with a promise of four wives. He left for Syria, but militants arrested him because they thought he was a spy. They threw him in one of their infamous execution centers where he heard a decapitation.
“It was like the sound of a cat being run over,” he claimed.
A video released by the group in October 2014 featured fighters from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. German publication Welt identified Abu Dauoud as Michael N. He lived in Gladbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia, which is 329 miles east of Berlin, and preached at mosques in Solingen where Salafism is prominent. The Salafi movement is a sect of Islam who believe they are the correct interpreters of the Quran.
SITE provided a transcript of the nine minute, fourteen second video in which Dauoud attacked President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel:
Obama. You filthy liar. You lied to your people and betrayed them. By redeploying your soldiers here to carry out cowardly airstrikes you desire to kill the Muslims. The same to you O Germans and to filthy Merkel who gave gifts to Israel. And [by Allah] you Jews, I say to you, Isra’il (peace be upon him) is innocent from you. He is far from you, having nothing to do with you. Gather together all of you. Hollande, Cameron and Putin, gather against the Muslims. You will only lose. You will only lose, and all praise is for Allah.
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