Germany: A Koran in Every Household (GateStone Institute) by Soeren Kern 04/11/12)
Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3007/germany-koran
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Salafists also believe that democracy, because it is a man-made form
of government, must be destroyed.. According to Die Welt, the
Salafists have launched a "frontal assault" against people of other
faiths and "unbelievers". Many Islamists believe Islamic Sharia law
is a divine ordinance that is to replace all other legal systems. The
number of Islamic radicals in German is surging. Islam is giving them
respectability.
Islamic radicals in Germany have launched an unprecedented nationwide
campaign to distribute 25 million copies of the Koran, translated
into the German language, with the goal of placing one Koran into
every household in Germany, free of charge.
The mass proselytization campaign -- called Project "Read!" -- is
being organized by dozens of Islamic Salafist groups located in
cities and towns throughout Germany, as well as in Austria and in
Switzerland.
Salafism is a branch of radical Islam, practiced in Saudi Arabia,
that seeks to establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the
Middle East, North Africa and Europe -- and eventually the entire
world. The Caliphate would be governed exclusively by Islamic Sharia
law, which would apply both to Muslims and to non-Muslims.
Salafists also believe, among other anti-Western doctrines, that
democracy, because it is a man-made form of government, must be
destroyed.
Although Germany´s domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für
Verfassungsschutz (BfV), regards the Salafist groups as a threat to
German security, Salafists have free reign in the country, and
Salafist preachers are known regularly to preach hatred against the
West in mosques and prayer centers that are proliferating across
Germany.
The campaign to place a Koran in every German household is being
spearheaded by a Rheinland-based Salafist, Ibrahim Abou-Nagie, a
Palestinian preacher of hate, who leads a radical Islamic group
called "The True Religion" ("Die Wahre Religion").
In September 2011, German public prosecutors launched an
investigation into Abou-Nagie after he called for violence against
non-believers in videos posted on the Internet. In his sermons, Abou-
Nagie glamorizes Islamic martyrdom and says that Islamic Sharia law
is above the German Constitution. He outspokenly believes that music
should be prohibited, that homosexuals should be executed, and that
adulterers should be stoned.
Abou-Nagie has tens of thousands of followers across Germany. Among
them are two German Muslim converts-turned-terror suspects trained by
Abou-Nagie and recently arrested in Dover, England, after British
border police searched their luggage and found a document
entitled "How to Build a Bomb in Your Mom´s Kitchen," an article from
the English-language online magazine "Inspire" produced by Al-Qaida
in Yemen.
In one video, Abou-Nagie tells his audience that "whoever follows the
Christian Bible or the Jewish Torah instead of the Islamic Koran will
go to Hell for eternity."
Not surprisingly, Abou-Nagie sees it as his calling to save the
German people from the wrath of Allah by converting them to Islam. To
achieve this aim, Abou-Nagie founded Project "Read!" to distribute
tens of millions of copies of the Koran throughout Germany.
The campaign is now well under way. More than 100
Salafist "information booths" have already been set up in dozens of
German cities, particularly in the regions of North Rhine-Westphalia,
Lower Saxony, Hessen and Hamburg.
Abou-Nagie´s approach is simple and effective: German Muslims are
encouraged to purchase a copy of the Koran (red cover) in order to
fund the free distribution of additional copies of the Koran (blue
cover). In addition to the public distribution of the Koran on the
streets and market places, non-Muslims can order a free copy of the
Koran on an Internet website called hausdesqurans.de.
According to Abou-Nagie, Salafists have already distributed more than
300,000 German translations of the Koran, and a fifth print run
consisting of tens of thousands of additional copies has already been
ordered from the printing plant, which is located in Baden-
Württemberg.
During the extended Christian Easter weekend from April 5-9,
Project "Read!" entered into a new phase. According to the Berlin-
based newspaper Die Welt, the Salafists have launched a "frontal
assault" against people of other faiths and "unbelievers". On April
7, for instance, Project "Read!" organized a nationwide campaign to
distribute the Koran in 35 German cities, including Berlin, Cologne,
Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Heidelberg, Konstanz, Munich
and Osnabrück.
According to Die Welt, German authorities view the Koran project,
which fundamentalists are using a recruiting tool, as a "most
worrisome" campaign for radical Islam. Security analysts say the
campaign is also a public-relations gimmick intended to persuade
Germans that the Salafists are transparent and "citizen friendly."
In an effort to improve their image, the Salafists have removed from
their "information booths" all literature about the role of women in
Islam or the supremacy of Islamic Sharia law over democracy.
Moreover, the German translation of the Koran has edited out many of
the verses which call on Muslims to make war on non-believers.
According to BfV, the German domestic intelligence agency, the German
version of the Koran is "rather non-controversial."
German authorities also say, however, that Project "Read!" is being
organized by Islamist networks that hold an extremist world view and
a militant ideology.
A spokesperson for the Berlin branch of the BfV told Die Welt
that "the objective of this campaign is to help bring those who are
interested into contact with the Salafist scene in order to influence
them in the context of their extremist political ideologies."
Although not everyone who takes a Koran into their home will convert
to Islam, German authorities say Abou-Nagie´s Project "Read!" is a
establishing a breeding ground for anti-constitutional ideas.
In any case, the number of Islamic radicals in Germany is surging.
According to the BfV, there are an estimated 29 Islamist groups in
Germany with 34,720 members or supporters who pose a major threat to
homeland security. Many of them want to establish a "Koran-state" in
Germany because they believe Islamic Sharia law is a divine ordinance
that is to replace all other legal systems.
The head of the German Police Union (DPolG), Rainer Wendt, has told
the Hamburg-based Bild newspaper that he is concerned about the
presence of clandestine Islamic sleeper cells made up of Muslim
immigrants and converts in Germany. He has called for the recruitment
of undercover agents to infiltrate the Islamic environment. It is
the "only way to monitor the scene," Wendt said.
"Radical Islamists live everywhere and nowhere in Germany. One cannot
rule out that that nice young man from next door, who brings grandma
her fresh bread every morning, is not in fact an Islamic sleeper and
terrorist," Wendt warned.
The BfV is particularly concerned about Muslim youth who are prone
to "rapid radicalization patterns," and who possess a "high
willingness to use force" and "to attack." Some of them are under
surveillance by the security authorities, according to Wendt.
The BfV is also monitoring a surge in online Islamist propaganda,
much of which warns Muslims that they are not to integrate into
German society. With an estimated 4.3 million Muslims, Germany has
Western Europe´s second-biggest Islamic population after France.
Some of the Islamists are Germans who recently converted to Islam.
This would include former boxer Pierre Vogel, who converted to Islam
and studied in Saudi Arabia. He is now an Islamic preacher who rails
against Muslim integration into German society.
Many of the German converts to Islam are socially disaffected drop-
outs from school and/or ex-convicts, and radical Islam is giving them
respectability, according to German security services.
Some of the home-grown Muslim radicals are being alienated from
German society by means of Sharia law, which is now competing with
the German criminal justice system in all major cities in Germany.
Settlements reached by the Muslim mediators often mean perpetrators
are able to avoid long prison sentences, while victims receive large
sums in compensation or have their debts cancelled, in line with
Sharia law. This is fomenting distrust for the established legal
system, analysts say.
According to Kirsten Heisig, the author of the book "The End of
Patience": In Germany "the law is slipping out of our hands. It is
moving to the streets or into a parallel system where an imam or
another representative of the Koran determines what must be done."
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