Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar are supporting extremist Islamic groups in Germany, according to a leaked intelligence report.
A brief seen by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters NDR and WDR raised concern over a reported increase in support for fundamentalist Salafism in Germany, warning that the ideology already has 10,000 followers and is growing.
The report, by Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency and Federal Intelligence Service (BND) reportedly accused Gulf groups of funding mosques, religious schools, hardline preachers and conversion or “dawah” groups to spread the ideology.
Missionary movements were part of a “long-running strategy to exert influence” by the three states, it found, naming the Saudi Muslim World League, Sheikh Eid Bin Mohammad al-Thani Charitable Association and Kuwaiti Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS), which has been banned by the US and Russia for allegedly supporting al-Qaeda. [Belfast Telegraph] Read more
Gulf state groups are ‘supporting Salafists in Germany’: report
Three major German news outlets have reported that religious groups from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar have been increasingly supporting Salafists in Germany, raising concerns among intelligence agencies.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) as well as broadcasters NDR and WDR reported on Tuesday that a report by German intelligence agencies shows an increase in support from religious groups in the three Gulf states to Salafists in Germany.
The media outlets state that these organizations have helped build school facilities, mosques and sent preachers to Germany to share a fundamentalist version of Islam.
SZ reports that Germany’s BND and BfV intelligence agencies are concerned that the intolerant and ultra-conservative form of Islam could spread. Currently they estimate there to be 10,000 members of the Salafist scene, and believe that refugees could also be drawn into it. [The Local] Read more
Islam Surveyed 