Young people are increasingly radicalizing online and following instructions from foreign sources. Recent cases in Germany highlight the growing threat posed by Islamist chat groups, where violent ideas are developed in secret.
This process recalls events in Vienna: In November 2023, a video emerged in an Islamist chat group announcing an attack that would kill non-believers. Shortly afterward, investigators arrested a young German-Afghan in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (North Rhine-Westphalia). The boy, only 15 years old, was sentenced to four years in juvenile detention in June this year. Just a few days ago, his Chechen accomplice (17) received the same sentence from the Neuruppin Regional Court (Brandenburg). The two had met online.
Radical chat groups concretize violent ideas out of public view
The case sheds light on how modern Islamist terrorism operates. Like-minded individuals no longer necessarily meet in shady urban mosques, as was the case with the Hamburg terror group around Mohammed Atta before September 11, 2001. They now meet and radicalize online, where they are often directed from abroad.
The teenagers’ plans were still in an early stage but were specific: They intended to drive a truck into the Leverkusen-Opladen Christmas market. “Those Christmas market visitors who were not immediately killed would have been stabbed afterward,” reported the Neuruppin Regional Court following its verdict. The trials in both cases were held behind closed doors due to the young age of the perpetrators.
“Tiktok jihadists” receive orders from abroad, according to state security
Peter R. Neumann, a scholar at King’s College in London, speaks of “a new perpetrator demographic.” He calls them “Tiktok jihadists.” “The central actors of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda receive their orders from distant foreign countries,” says Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence (DSN) in Austria, who played a leading role in uncovering the terror plans in Vienna.
This phenomenon is also described in the 60-page “Islamism Report” published by the NRW Office for the Protection of the Constitution in January. Extremist Salafists now model their behavior more on popular influencers. Instead of complex theological discussions, there is now “a deliberately casual appearance, often influenced by role models from gangster rap, martial arts, and criminal circles.” Some individuals have over 450,000 followers on Tiktok. However, strict German data protection regulations often make investigators’ work on the internet more difficult.
730 people in Bavaria associated with Salafist spectrum
Investigators now consider the IS offshoot in Afghanistan and Pakistan, “Islamic State Khorasan Province” (ISKP), particularly dangerous. ISKP was also behind the major attack on a concert hall near Moscow in March, where at least 140 people were killed. In Vienna, where a large sum of counterfeit money was found, many signs point to organized structures and masterminds. According to experts, the danger has significantly increased since the Hamas attack on October 7 and Israel’s response to it. The number of foiled and executed attacks in Europe has more than quadrupled compared to 2022.
According to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, 730 people in Bavaria are currently associated with the Salafist spectrum, the most significant Islamist movement. “The proportion of 15- to 25-year-olds in the Salafist scene is currently around twelve percent,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) told our newspaper. This issue will also be addressed in the first half of the 2024 Constitutional Protection Report, which the minister will present next week. “The Office for the Protection of the Constitution particularly notes that young people are showing more willingness to use violence and are more radicalized than in previous years,” said the minister.
