Tiny Minority of Extremists Alert. We're always told that people like these "potentially dangerous Islamists" have somehow misunderstood Islam. And yet there are ever more purported "misunderstanders" coming out of the woodwork and recruiting still more of the same. We have seen many examples of the fervor with which Islamic communities tackle alleged heresies and "un-Islamic" practices, but this one -- the supposed twisting of Islam's peaceful message -- keeps on keeping on. Instead, with respect to jihadist violence, we get minimalistic, symbolic efforts like vaguely worded fatwas about "terrorism," and the killing of "innocents." Such behavior certainly points to the Tiny Minority of Extremists' being neither so tiny, nor so extreme. Unfortunately, questioning the political dogma surrounding the nature and role of the supposed Tiny Minority remains a "heresy" that Western governments are not willing to entertain.
"100 ‘dangerous’ Islamists in Germany," from Agence France-Presse, March 28:
BERLIN: Germany is home to several hundred “potentially dangerous Islamists” including a hard core of around 100 people classed as dangerous, a senior Interior Ministry official said on Friday.
Between 60 and 80 “jihadists” out of some 140 have returned to Germany, who had undergone training in camps in the Tribal Areas on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, State Secretary August Hanning said. “The danger should not be underestimated. The 60 to 80 who have returned make up the overwhelming majority of up to around 100 people whom we class as dangerous,” Hanning told the Tagesspiegel daily’s Saturday edition.
“On top of that there are about another 300 potentially dangerous Islamists. All in all we are talking about a circle of around 1,000 people,” said Hanning, who used to head German foreign intelligence agency, the BND. He added he was worried about the possibility of attacks in the run up to this September’s general election in Germany. “The threats do not mention the elections directly. But in the view of jihadists in Pakistan the election is important because it will determine Germany’s foreign policy in the future,” he said.
“We remember that the attacks in Madrid in 2004 were carried out a few days before elections in Spain,” he said, referring to the commuter train bombings. A number of videos – sometimes in German or with German subtitles – have emerged in recent months warning of future attacks on German soil because of the presence of 3,500 of the country’s troops in Afghanistan....
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