It was 29 March 2019 when a 19-year-old man sped across the city centre of Essen (North Rhine-Westphalia) in his Opel car on that Friday morning. The police had been searching for the man with Tajik roots with a large contingent; he had been noticed for his “suspicious driving”. He was caught and arrested.

A few days later, there were large-scale raids in ten cities in North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg – eleven men, nine of them with Tajik roots, were arrested. The suspicion was that they all belonged to an ISIS terror cell planning terrorist attacks in Germany.

In April 2020, the next successful police investigation: special police forces once again uncovered an ISIS terror cell. This time, four Tajiks from North Rhine-Westphalia, aged 24 to 32, were arrested. Their leader has already been in custody since March 15, 2019 for illegal ownership of weapons. Again North-Rhine Westphalia, again suspected Islamists who have Tajik roots. So is North Rhine-Westphalia targeted by this group?

In fact, this ISIS splinter group seems to want to gain a foothold in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the foursome arrested in 2020 planned to attack US army facilities in Germany as well as individuals. The suspects had already had weapons, ammunition and components for explosive devices. The five men had already joined ISIS in January 2019 and had been directed by leading terrorists from Syria and Afghanistan.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the group was first supposed to travel to Tajikistan to fight in the “Holy War” against the government there. But then the plans changed and attacks were to take place in Germany. Two US air force bases were spied on for this purpose. Security circles have stressed to the newspaper DER WESTEN that the case shows a continuing danger of ISIS – even if the terrorist group has largely lost its territory in Syria and Iraq.

Islamism expert Sigrid Herrmann-Marschall (57) on the “Tajik phenomenon”, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia: “In my estimation, Muslims of Tajik origin are more at home in institutions that are close to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. There they meet like-minded people. The background to this is that their own places of prayer are not available.”

The expert continues: “It depends on both the local conditions and the vigilance of the imams that radical Tajiks do not congregate in these mosques. There is a latent danger. I hope that it will be possible to determine from the soon to begin trial how the structures of such terror cells are set up.”

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office now wants to take these men out of circulation and brought charges against the five men on February 1, 2021. One of the men is said to have carried out terror propaganda from North-Rhine Westphalia, especially in the Russian- and Tajik-language online network of the “IS province of Khorasan”, he had ideologically trained followers and interested parties worldwide, radicalised them. This network was significantly involved in the radicalisation of the Stockholm attacker, who killed four people and injured numerous others with a truck on April 7, 2017, according to the Office of the Attorney General.

Funds were also allegedly collected to expand propaganda and recruit more members in Germany. Their goal was to take up armed struggle against “infidels”. They also trained themselves in physical training for this, including paintball games. Among the participants of this “training” were also Islamists who had contact with the assassin of Vienna on November 2, 2020.

It is indeed to be wished that the trial will bring more clarity….

https://www.derwesten.de/region/nrw-terrorgefahr-von-dieser-isis-gruppe-islamismus-expertin-schlaegt-alarm-id231843909.html?fbclid=IwAR2_s9yd75UZesRnH1MfM87kLfyVNlU67MPML-QL1ewj_yOKME4fLf5JWyw

As in many other cities in Germany, the issue of the call of the muezzin is currently stirring up public opinion in Gelsenkirchen, a city in the Ruhr area. For years, the call of the muezzin has been heard from two mosques in the districts of Hassel and Horst, which are run by the Ankara-based Islamic association DITIB. If the Alliance 90/Green Party in Gelsenkirchen has its way, the muezzin call is to be extended to other mosques in the city area, from which the call is to be heard daily during the Corona pandemic and then permanently every Friday for the notorious Friday prayer.

However, there is growing resistance to this. In the city council, the Green motion was rejected with the votes of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Free Democratic Party (FDP), the AfD and also some representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). However, it was an extremely close result. The motion was then passed on to the education committee, where, however, there is great interest in dropping the hot potato, as can be learned from the city council. The Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa (BPE) has also contributed with extensive flyer distribution campaigns in Gelsenkirchen to raising the level of information among the population about the totalitarian and threatening significance of the muezzin call.

The Greens, on the other hand, seem to remain ignorant of the facts. Today, Tuesday, from 6 to 8 p.m., they are organising the online conference entitled “Ways of interreligious dialogue: Why does the desire for an Islamic call to prayer in Gelsenkirchen trigger such controversy?”, for which one can also register by email at “kv@gruene-gelsenkirchen.de”.

The most prominent participant is Lamya Kaddor, who has been a Green politician since October 2020 and is aiming for a candidacy for the German Parliament, and is also the founder of the “Liberal-Islamic Federation”. She will be in the company of “religious educator” Dr Darjusch Bartsch from the “Centre for Islamic Theology” at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster and Dr Detlef Schneider-Stengel, advisor for “Interreligious Dialogue” at the Diocese of Essen. A fact-based critical discussion can hardly be expected from this panel. Perhaps it will at least be possible to follow up with questions.

https://www.journalistenwatch.com/2021/03/19/gelsenkirchen-muezzinruf-stadtgebiet/

The migrant organization “New German Media Makers” (NdM) has reiterated its demand that editorial offices become “more diverse”. To this end, the association presented a “Diversity Guide” this week under the title “How German Media Create More Diversity”.

According to excerpts from the “New German Media Makers” or NdM website, it says, among other things: “German society has changed, it has become more colourful. That should be reflected in the reporting.” The manual explains which terms journalists should and should not use in which context.

When reporting on criminal offenses, “the prejudice still prevails that refugees or people with international history are more likely to commit criminal offenses than biographical Germans and that their origin is causally related to it”.

Especially now, when the media are losing sales, there is a crisis of confidence and more competition, “diversity” is important. “More diversity brings new target groups, new customers and, above all, better, more successful journalism”.

The more “diverse” editorial offices are, the more it is possible “to take up issues of society without prejudice”, the published excerpts further stated. “And just as we can no longer imagine a purely male editorial office today, we should also no longer be able to imagine white editorial offices. Precisely because of the special constitutional mandate of the media, the question of fair access and the representation of all population groups in journalism is also a question of democracy.”

Media companies are also told: “As a media company, get an idea of ​​the proportion of migrant journalists in your ranks, disclose this diversity data transparently and formulate clear targets (soft ‘quotas’) that can be checked.”

The manual which uses “gender-fluid” spelling, is addressed to all editors, but it is not for sale. “We are happy to make it available to media companies,” only if they are willing to attend an hour-long “information” session. The media should commit to employing at least 30 percent of journalists with an immigrant background by 2030. In addition, “non-white people” should be shown in every program and on every topic.

The MdN is an association that sees itself as “representing the interests of media professionals with a migration history” and advocates “balanced reporting” that “adequately reflects Germany as a country of immigration”.

The board of directors includes the Turkish-born journalist Ferda Ataman, as well as the former spokeswoman for former Federal President Joachim Gauck, Ferdos Forudastan. However, not all journalists with a migration background are welcome in the association.

In the past, the “New German Media Makers” drew attention to themselves, among other things, as language police who wanted to tell journalists how they should report on the asylum crisis. And most recently, the tax-funded association gave weather phenomena foreign-sounding names.

“So far our weather has almost only had typical German names. According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 26 percent of all people in Germany have a ‘migration background’,” the NdM declared. They maintain that weather systems should have “migrant names”.

For the first weeks of the new year, the “media makers” bought 14 sponsorships for the “weather correction” campaign. Among other things, the low and high-pressure systems in 2021 were called Ahmet, Goran, Jussuf, Flaviu, Dimitrios, Dragica and Chana. “Making the weather more diverse is just a symbolic step,” said chairwoman Ferda Ataman. “It is important that social diversity finally becomes normal, everywhere.”

Thus “Ahmet” brought the heavy snowfalls to Germany.

In addition to Ataman, the former spokeswoman for former Federal President Joachim Gauck, Ferdos Forudastan, is also on the board. Instead of “wave of refugees” journalists should write “immigration”, instead of “asylum seeker” rather “refugee”. And for people from immigrant families, the term “culturally diverse” is recommended.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/03/19/organization-calls-for-more-diversity-among-german-journalists/