Religion

Muslims Form Fundamentalist Biker Gang In Germany

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Fundamentalist Islamic leaders have formed a biker gang in Germany modeled after the Hells Angels to protect Muslims from a perceived growth of hatred toward Islam.

The gang, known as Germany’s Muslims, formed in May under the leadership of Marcel Kunst, a German convert who changed his name to Mahmud Salam, according to Gatestone Institute (GI) Monday.

Kunst is a known Salafist — a fundamentalist Muslim whose goal is to institute Sharia law in Germany. A statement on the gang’s Facebook page claiming non-violence, translated by GI, reads as follows:

Our organization has been founded for only one purpose: To protect and support our brothers and sisters from the ever-growing hatred of Islam!!! To all non-Muslims who read this post, pay attention. The following could change your perception of us!!! We respect every religion and, as dictated by the Quran, do not force our faith on anyone!!! We do not sympathize with the Islamic State and are against compulsion in faith and in marriage!!! ISLAM DOES NOT RECOGNIZE HONOR KILLINGS AS IS OFTEN SUPPOSED!!! The raised finger in our logo is not from the so-called Islamic State. In our faith it symbolizes that there is only one God!!! We have summarized 40 commandments from the Quran for you….IMPORTANT. Whoever gets into a fight on the road or elsewhere (except for self-defense) will be expelled from our group without further discussion!!!

German authorities identified several of the gang’s senior leaders, in addition to Kunst, as Salafists, including a gang “sergeant” who was detained by police July 2 during the Tour de France when the race passed through Mönchengladbach, where the gang was founded. Police issued a warning to the gang’s leadership that vigilanteism would not be tolerated.

“So far, we have no evidence that they are a danger, but we are keeping our eyes on them,” said Isabella Hannen, spokeswoman for the Mönchengladbach Police Department, to Die Welt.

The gang has been viewed with heavy suspicion by locals in light of Islamic vigilante groups who posed a threat to German communities over recent years, according to GI.

One such group, the self-styled “Sharia Police,” began patrolling German communities in 2016, urging Muslims and non-Muslims alike to adhere to Sharia law, and even passed out leaflets in the section of one town to declare it a “Sharia controlled zone.” A group of about a hundred Islamists also began enforcing Sharia law with violent means in a Chechen community in Berlin.

A report on Salafist violence from the German domestic intelligence agency BfV stated that Salafists threaten to escalate the level of violent civil unrest that already threatens German communities.

“The potential threat posed by Salafist violence remains dangerously high,” the report reads. “Salafist violence could create an additional dynamic through interactions with extremist groups from other ‘hostile’ ideological camps, as already occurred in individual cases in the past.”