ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: Some 10,000 active supporters of Al-Qaeda in the United Kingdom and 31,000 Islamic extremists in Germany pose a serious threat to the European security apparatus, said an internationally recognized expert on terrorism, Rolf Tophoven, here on Tuesday.
In a paper presented at the three-day seminar on “Global Terrorism” organized by the Institute of Regional Studies, Mr Tophoven said a small minority of European Muslims were more than capable of attacking their own countries in terms of jihad.
In his paper titled, “The European Network of Al-Qaeda, “Mr Tophoven quoted a confidential British study, which estimated the number of active Al-Qaeda supporters in the United Kingdom being up to 10,000. The German Verfassungsschutz (Office for the Protection of Constitution) outlined a recent number of about 31,000 Islamic extremists in Germany who were believed a potential security risk, he said.
“Both figures demonstrate that militant Islam is firmly entrenched in the European heartland,” said Mr Tophoven.
Besides detailing many threats to European security, Mr Tophoven pointed out that another important and dangerous branch of Zarqawi in Europe is Ansarul Islam, which was “increasingly promoting a pan-Islamic image.”
Mr Tophoven said the intelligence agencies were particularly worried about the expansion of Islamic terror cells in Eastern European countries including Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic.
He identified Austria as hub for the communication among Islamic extremists while France was categorised as the key country for the recruitment of warriors for Chechnya.
He said Mr Tophoven said Great Britain was the most important country for militant Islamists and London was the central logistic basis and ideal hiding place for quite a few masterminds of terror. In monitored telephonic conversations between Islamists, London was described as the nerve centre for recruitments, he said.
Mr Tophoven suggested that the main task for the West and the Muslim countries must be combating the belief that it is the duty of every good Muslim to wage Jihad against the non-believers. If that could be managed, the existing and emerging terrorist threat by Al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups could be reduced, he said.
Dr Fang Jinying in a paper on “International terrorist threat to Chinese security” said the Chinese security concept underwent a marked change in 2004 after Chinese engineers and workers were targeted by terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Dilating on the threats faced by China, Dr Jinying said Hizbut Tahrir al Islami was an emerging threat to Chinese security.
“This clandestine, cadre-operated, radical Islamist political organization that operates in 40 countries around the world with headquarters in London, proclaims that its goal is to establish a Caliphate, which will also include Xinjiang,” said Dr Jinying.
Dr Jinying said since September 11, 2001, Hizbut Tehrir had spread around Xinjiang, particularly in its South part. Dr Jinying said China would utilize cultural, diplomatic, economic and media means to combat terror.
President of the Russian Political Science Association, Prof Alexander Nikitin presented a paper on “Legal foundations for fight against terrorism” and said the field of anti-terrorism became a field for projecting and juxtaposing great power’s national interests not in the lesser proportion than other dimensions of international relations. Prof Nikitin said analysis of new tendencies in the terror, anti- terror interaction showed that anti-terror campaign was used by certain big powers, not only the US, as a vehicle, cover or excuse for achieving pragmatically certain old geographical, strategic, economic goals of their own which had nothing in common with the war on terror.
“The fact that a next target of anti-terrorist campaign, be it Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Sudan or Pakistan, is unclear to international community and is to be decided entirely by changing mood of Washington is somewhat frightening,” he said.
Former Director-General of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt-Gen Asad Durrani, in his paper on “Countering terrorism” said it as not possible to remove the root causes of terrorism.
“I do not believe that the mantra that we have lately been reciting to exorcise this curse, ‘to root out terrorism we have to remove its root-causes’ would get us anywhere. For one thing, we were not likely to agree on the root causes,” said Lt-Gen (retired) Durrani.
Other who presented papers in the seminar included Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor Xia Liping, Lt-Gen (retired) Kamal Matinuddin and Prof Paul Rogers.