Germany bans Salafist Muslims suspected of IS recruitment amid mass raids

A Salafist organization best-known for distributing copies of the Koran across Germany was banned Tuesday on suspicion of recruiting Muslims on behalf of the Islamic State group as some 190 raids were carried out against its members. The organization – whose names translates as The True Religion – and its Koran distribution initiative "Lies!" (pronounced […]

A Salafist organization best-known for distributing copies of the Koran across Germany was banned Tuesday on suspicion of recruiting Muslims on behalf of the Islamic State group as some 190 raids were carried out against its members.

The organization – whose names translates as The True Religion – and its Koran distribution initiative "Lies!" (pronounced "lease" and meaning "Read!") were banned for using the promotion of Islam as a pretext to spread "hateful messages and conspiracy theories," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.

About 140 people have been sent to wage jihad in Iraq and Syria by the group, which carried out its recruitment drives in pedestrian precincts and public squares across Germany, according de Maiziere, who was speaking as the raids in 10 German states were still ongoing.

Hundreds of police were involved in the raids on about 190 apartments and offices associated with hundreds of organizers and supporters of the Salafist group in nine western German states and Berlin.

Most of the raids were carried out in the state of Hesse, including 15 in the city of Frankfurt alone. Raids were also conducted in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hamburg and Bremen.

"Those who indoctrinate young people and radicalize them with pseudoreligious ideologies are using religious freedom as a smoke screen," said Ralf Jaeger, North Rhine-Westphalia’s top security official, after the raids.

The True Religion’s leader, Palestinian-born Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, was not in Germany while the raids were taking place. Police searched his last known location in the western city of Bonn.

Security sources told DPA Abou-Nagie is believed to be in Malaysia, where the group is planning to launch a similar Koran distribution initiative. It already operates in 15 countries including France, Britain, Austria, Bahrain and Brazil, the sources said.

Salafism is an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam based on a literal interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia. (DPA)