[Vision2020] Syrians Inform on Terrorists in Germany

[Nicholas Gier]

Nation of Change, October 12, 2016

Note: State chapters of the Council of American Islamic Relations have also
set up programs to detect radicalization in their mosques and faith
communities.

A group of Syrian refugees may have helped prevent a major terrorist attack
from taking place in Germany, after they held down
<https://www.buzzfeed.com/hayesbrown/syrian-refugees-helped-arrest-a-suspected-bombmaker-after-a?utm_term=.kq5dw49lO#.rwa7DkJ8W>
another
refugee inside an apartment in Leipzig while waiting for local police to
arrive.

Jaber al-Bakr, a 22-year-old Syrian national who was granted asylum status
in Germany last year, was arrested on Sunday, following a two-day manhunt
after police found “several hundred grams” of an explosive at an apartment
in Chemnitz, enough to cause significant damage.

Al-Bakr asked other Syrians on an online forum
<http://m.bild.de/news/inland/terroranschlag/wie-nah-war-deutschland-an-einem-anschlag-48222414.bildMobile.html>
for
lodging near the Leipzig Central train station. “The Syrians took him home,
where they constrained him and then called police,” CBS News reported
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/syrian-refugee-jaber-albakr-arrested-alleged-germany-bomb-plot-asylum-seeker/>.
The German newspaper Bild
<http://m.bild.de/news/inland/terroranschlag/wie-nah-war-deutschland-an-einem-anschlag-48222414.bildMobile.html>
reported
that the refugees who housed him grew suspicious of him, posting a photo of
him to Facebook to ask other Syrians whether he looked like the suspect
wanted in the manhunt. Once confirmed, one man went to the local police
while the other man kept Al-Bakr tied with electric cords and held him down
in a headlock position. Al-Bakr offered one man 1,000 euros and US$200, but
neither refugee took the offer.

“I fled from Syria over the Balkan Route,” one of the refugees told Bild
<http://m.bild.de/news/inland/terroranschlag/wie-nah-war-deutschland-an-einem-anschlag-48222414.bildMobile.html>,
according to a Google translation. “I am so grateful to Germany, that it
has taken us — it was very clear that we go to the police.”

Al-Bakr was among the more than 890,000 asylum seekers who were admitted
into Germany last year. He was granted asylum in November 2015.

Yet because of Al-Bakr’s alleged ties to the Islamic State militant group,
which has also claimed attacks in the western German state of Bavaria in
July, some German lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own Christian
Democratic Union (CDU) party have taken the opportunity
<https://www.buzzfeed.com/hayesbrown/syrian-refugees-helped-arrest-a-suspected-bombmaker-after-a?utm_term=.kq5dw49lO#.rwa7DkJ8W>
to
justify why they want a crackdown on Syrian refugees, a group often
demonized as potential terrorists.

The talk surrounding refugees has been especially rancorous in the United
States, where the current Republican presidential candidate has accused
<https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-immigrants-5ca1fb78a522#.te8dbfncg> the
federal government of allowing in Syrian refugees and Muslim immigrants
without serious vetting. Those claims do not have any basis in reality.
Refugees undergo a months-long vetting process from numerous organizations
and federal agencies before they are allowed to step foot in the country.
Immigrants from Muslim-majority countries also undergo stringent
requirements <https://www.aclusocal.org/CARRP/> before they can become U.S.
citizens.

Like the recent event that took place in Germany, over the years,
immigrants have actively reported suspicious activity to law enforcement
authorities. In the most recent example,Harinder Singh Bains
<http://religionnews.com/2016/09/20/man-who-led-police-to-bombing-suspect-is-an-immigrant-too/>,
a native from India
<http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/us/harinder-bains-sikh-faith-trnd/> who
practices the Sikh faith, was the first to call police when he saw the
primary suspect involved in the pressure cooker bombings in New York and
New Jersey in September.

During the second presidential debate on Sunday, both the Republican and
Democratic candidates called on Muslims to report threats
<https://thinkprogress.org/muslimsreportstuff-goes-viral-after-trump-and-clinton-urge-muslims-to-report-threats-d84ea73323e4>
that
happen in their communities. While Republican candidate Donald Trump said
Muslims have to “report the problems when they see them,” Democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton called on them to “be part of our eyes and ears.”
As a 2011 University of North Carolina (UNC) study
<http://kurzman.unc.edu/files/2011/06/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_Since_911_An_Accounting.pdf>
pointed
out, 40 percent of tips regarding terrorism plots come from the
Muslim-American community itself. Those tips include
<https://thinkprogress.org/trump-has-a-suggestion-for-what-muslims-should-do-about-terrorism-650d35151b0e#.9hofbtou7>
family
members who report that suspects go missing abroad or community members who
find suspicious activity, including violent social media postings.

Still, even beyond Muslims “spying” on each other, the New York Police
Department routinely monitored Muslims
<https://thinkprogress.org/nypd-routinely-investigated-muslims-between-2010-and-2015-8e1b6bc33ae8#.181ns7iqz>
between
2010 and 2015, though the surveillance of Muslim communities dates back to
the post-September 11, 2001 attacks. The controversial surveillance program has
not found much success
<https://thinkprogress.org/republican-candidates-want-to-bring-back-ineffective-unconstitutional-nypd-surveillance-d3fa02cdb73b#.5rr0pgiq1>,
with the NYPD having never received a lead that led to a terrorism
investigation.

-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
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