Duesseldorf: One of Germany’s best known Islamist preachers went on trial in the western city of Duesseldorf on Tuesday on charges of backing “a terrorist group” fighting in Syria.

Sven Lau, 35, stands accused of supporting and recruiting fighters for the Syria-based Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (JMA), or Army of Emigrants and Supporters, which Germany lists as a terrorist organisation. A convert to the ultra-conservative Salafist branch of Islam, Lau gained notoriety in his home country in 2014 when he organised a vigilante “Sharia Police” group that patrolled German streets seeking to enforce Islamic law.

He was arrested in December in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a hotspot for fundamentalist Islam from where a number of fighters have left to wage jihad in Iraq and Syria.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2016