ISIL banned in Germany
Defence minister Thomas de Maizière announced the ban on flying ISIL flags, wearing ISIL symbols and all ISIL activities at a press conference last Friday.
“The terror organisation Islamic State is a threat to public safety in Germany as well,” de Mazière said. “We are resolutely confronting this threat today.
“Today’s ban is directed solely against terrorists who abuse religion for their criminal goals.”
“Germany is a well-fortified democracy, there’s no place here for a terrorist organisation which opposes the constitutional order as well as the notion of international understanding.”
The move will also ban donations to the group, recruiting fighters, holding ISIL meetings and distributing its propaganda.
It does not, however, mean ISIL has been outlawed as a foreign terrorist organisation, as a court judgement is needed to do that.
It comes as the CIA announced that ISIL had around 30,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria. Several hundred Germans are also in their ranks.
It is unclear whether the group has any organisational structure in Germany, but young Germans are being recruited by Salafists, who believe in an extreme form of Islam, to fight for the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
Last week, two men were stopped at the German-Austrian border.
A trial also began on Monday of a 20-year-old in Frankfurt am Main accused of being a member of ISIL.
The man, named as Kreshnik B, allegedly travelled to Syria through Turkey and fought against President Bashar Al-Assad’s troops from July 2013 to December 2013. He was arrested on his return to Germany in December in Frankfurt.
Prosecutors said on the charge sheet that Kreshnik was trained by ISIL in weapons and fighting before joining battles for them.
According to the Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung, he was radicalised in the city by Islamic clerics.
Friday’s ban is part of a series of measures being taken by the government against the extremists.
Weapons and aid have been flown to Kurds fighting the terror group in northern Iraq, but on Thursday Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier ruled out German participation in American-led airstrikes against Isis positions in Syria.
That was echoed by Chancellor Merkel’s spokeswoman on Friday, who told Reuters that while Germany is concerned for the stability of the region, it will not take part in military strikes.


