Police on Saturday stepped up security of the Jewish community in the northern German city of Bremen amid a heightened danger from Islamist terrorists.
According to a statement quoted by Reuters, local police said they had searched an Islamic culture center, detained several people for identity checks and arrested one person in connection with the measures.
A spokesman for the police declined to give further details.
“Since yesterday evening the authorities in Bremen have indications, based on knowledge from the police, the domestic intelligence agency and a federal authority, of an increased threat from Islamist extremists,” the statement said, according to Reuters.
Earlier this month a carnival parade in the northern German town of Braunschweig was canceled at short notice due to a threat of an Islamist attack.
There have been a series of terrorist attacks in other European countries recently, including in Denmark, where a terrorist killed a volunteer security guard outside a synagogue in Copenhagen, and in France, where a terrorist killed four Jews in a kosher supermarket.
Germany, like other Western countries, has expressed concern over the phenomenon of Islamists from Western countries joining jihadists in the Middle East, then bringing terrorism back to their home countries. In September, Berlin announced a ban on the Islamic State (ISIS), aiming to prevent the group from recruiting young jihadists in Germany.
In addition to the threat of terrorism, Germany has seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents. During last summer’s war in Gaza, protesters waving Palestinian Authority flags and pictures of late PA leader Yasser Arafat shouted anti-Semitic slogans at rallies in Germany against Israeli military action.
Exclaiming “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), crowds in Berlin have reportedly yelled “Death to Israel” and chanted “Zionists are fascists, killing children and civilians”.
In one particularly shocking video, thousands of demonstrators can be heard chanting “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come on out and fight on your own”.
To top that, a Berlin imam has openly prayed for the annihilation of Zionist Jews, asking Allah to “kill them to the very last one.”
