The German police yesterday carried out sweeping raids across 10 states in a probe against an Islamist group suspected of propagating hate and inciting 140 youths to fight alongside jihadists in Syria and Iraq
Policemen near a warehouse of the ‘Lies! Verlag Gesellschaft’ that publishes an edition of the Quran in German and is backed by a group The True Religion, in Pulheim. Pic/AFP
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Berlin: The German police yesterday carried out sweeping raids across 10 states in a probe against an Islamist group suspected of propagating hate and inciting 140 youths to fight alongside jihadists in Syria and Iraq. The group called The True Religion (Die wahre Religion) is now also banned, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.
“Across the country, jihadist Islamists came together in this group named The True Religion,” he said. “Under the pretext of promoting Islam... hate messages were propagated and young people radicalised.”
De Maiziere noted that “140 young people travelled to Syria and Iraq where they joined the fight with terrorist groups”. He stressed that today’s action is targeted against those who “abuse religion and who use it as a pretext to spread extremist ideology and to back terrorist organisations”.
“The 140 departures by the group’s activists speak for themselves,” the minister said.