Suspected ISIS Supporters Arrested in Germany

Written by Connor Foster | April 1, 2024

Federal Court of Justice

Last week, two Afghan citizens were arrested in Germany on suspicion of terrorism when they were caught planning an attack on the Swedish parliament. Both men have been previously linked with the Salafi-jihadist group ISIS through communications and collecting donations of up to 2,000 euros to send to the group. A statement by the Office of the German Federal Prosecutor announced that the detainees had been planning the attack with explicit instructions from ISIS and had made unsuccessful attempts to procure weapons. To prepare for the attack, they had been researching local conditions in Stockholm to target the violence specifically at police officers in the area. It has been discovered that the attack was directed by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) group. 

It has been stated that ISIS-K ordered the attack in response to instances of Quran-burning in Sweden and surrounding countries. Burning the Quran has become more frequent as anti-Islam protests have spiked in Scandinavian countries. These incidents have incited major outrage among Middle Eastern countries. One such instance in September 2023 occurred when an Iraqi anti-Islam activist named Salwan Momika set fire to the Quran in a public square in Sweden. The act triggered a violent protest with at least 10 people being detained for crimes like setting police cars on fire or throwing electric scooters at police. The reaction to the protests by police created greater animosity towards the legal system in Sweden that would tolerate such blatant hate crimes towards Muslims.