466 Annabelle Böttcher
rooted in the Sufi tradition of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya.^17
In addition to the influx from Turkey, political and economic refu-
gees and students from Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria,
Pakistan, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Kosovo started trickling
into Germany in the 1970s.^18 Among the Lebanese, Iranian, and Iraqi
refugees were a large number of Shiites. The Muslims from the other
countries were mainly Sunni. There are no figures available for Salafis,
even though it is quite probable that some Sunnis from Middle East-
ern countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, etc. were Salafis. Very few
Salafis are from Turkey.^19 Official figures about Salafi presence do not
even exist for members of radical Salafi groups in Germany, accord-
ing to the “Annual Report of the Office for the Protection of the
Constitution” of the Ministry of the Interior in Germany. This source
mentions activities of radical Salafi groups, for example those belong-
ing to various branches of al- Qaida, to the Algerian Groupe Salafiste
pour la Prédication et le Combat (GSPC), and the Salafi Kurdish/
Iraqi groups Anṣār al-Islām, Islamic Jihad Union, Anṣār al-Sunna,
and Jamāʿat Anṣār al-Sunna.^20
In 2009, an increase of anti-German media statements by al-Qaida and
homegrown militant Islamists groups started to worry German authori-
ties. This was connected to the German elections to the Bun des tag and
to Germany’s mounting military presence in Afghanistan. In April 2009,
legal proceedings were started against the Islamic Jihad Union also called
“Sauerland-group”, whose members travelled to the border region
between Pakistan and Afghanistan to received military training.^21
Apart from this violence-espousing minority among Salafis, there
are groups that are not necessarily less radical in their discourse, but
17 Böttcher, Vielfältige islamische Traditionen, p. 5. The Naqshbandiyya-Mujad-
didiyya is as Sufi tradition named after Aḥmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī, known as
the mujaddid.
18 Heimbach, Entwicklung der islamischen Gemeinschaft, pp. 63–64; Lemmen,
Islamische Organisationen, p. 18.
19 Some Salafi websites are also presented in Turkish. The Salafi community in
Leipzig addressed some of its mails to Turkish-speaking members. See Mail
“Salaf.de News” dated Nov. 16, 2003, accessed Dec. 03, 2010. In another mail
they asked for financial support for a number of sick Turkish students and their
family members in Saudi Arabia. See Mail “Salaf.de News” dated June 7, 2003,
accessed Dec. 03, 2010.
20 Bundesministerium des Innern: Verfassungsschutzbericht 2009, Berlin 2009,
pp. 216–247.
21 Ibid., pp. 212–220.
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