Europe : What Has Failed and What Might Work to Gain Control of Jihadists Already There

The EU migrant crisis was caused by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The post-World War II immigration of Turkish workers also started in Germany. So, Germany fittingly leads the EU counterattack. In a February ZDF-TV interview, Hans-Georg Maathen, Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) head, warned that ISIS is hiding jihadists among refugees flowing into Europe : "The terror risk is very high." Maathen said BfV has received more than 100 warnings that ISIS fighters are among refugees now living in Germany, some using fake or stolen passports. He also revealed that BfV knows of 230 attempts by Salafists (Wahhabis) to canvass German refugee shelters seeking new recruits. BfV estimates the number of Salafists in Germany at 7,900, up from 3,800 in 2011. Salafists are a small fraction of the six million Moslems living in Germany, but intell officials warn they are young and willing to carry out terrorist acts in the name of Salafism, which BfV says is the "most dynamic islamist movement in Germany....The absolutist nature of Salafism contradicts significant parts of the German constitutional order." Maathen warns : "Salafists want to establish an Islamic state in Germany." ~~~~~ As reported in an earlier blog, Merkel set out to "bribe" Turkey into solving her migrant dilemma. The bribe is now in place. The EU will pay Turkey €6 billion over the next two years to be spent on Syrian refugees already in Turkey. And by June, 80 million Turkish citizens will have visa-free access to the EU, which has also agreed to "re-energize" Turkey's EU accession process. Turkey promised that all new "irregular migrants" -- Greece is burdened with vetting them -- crossing from Turkey into Greek islands will be returned to Turkey. For every Syrian returned to Turkey, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU – up to 72,000 Syrians. Merkel and the EU accepted what amounts to Turkish President Erdogan's blackmail for visa-free EU entry -- how many jihadists will that drop into Europe? And, the deal will not stop migrants from taking other overland routes or stop smugglers from avoiding Turkey in their sea routes -- going to Italy if Greece is unavailable. ~~~~~ EU's hope of halting migrant smugglers is in vain. So is the leftist foolishness of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who posted : "I believe the only sustainable way to fight back against those who seek to divide us is to create a world where understanding and empathy can spread faster than hate, and where every single person in every country feels connected and cared for and loved. That's the world we can and must build together." This is similar to Pope Francis's "throw open the doors to migrants" solution, as if any such effort would change the character of islamic jihad. ~~~~~ A few suggestions for Europe's security threat, unique and pressing, with border security and intelligence-sharing under severe stress. If it is not too late -- statistics show an irreversible Moslem ascendancy in the EU by 2050 -- the EU could better stop the islamic jihadist invasion by strengthening its external border controls. It could create an EU-wide intelligence agency, linked to NATO intell, to collect and share all intelligence with every member state. Every EU state could control Saudi and Qatari funders of schools and mosques and expel all radical imams, to prevent Wahhabi/Salafist/Moslem Brotherhood indoctrination of Moslems in the EU. Europe's most difficult but useful change would be to get rid of its leftist-socialist mindset that Moslems are victims of "European society," therefore with no responsibility to become part of their new EU countries. Europe, rather than thinking it hasn't done enough to "reach out," could enforce state schooling, local language competency, job training and work. Finally, the EU could follow Britain's advice -- vet all asylum requests in the Middle East, not after migrants arrive in Europe. ~~~~~ Dear readers, America could learn much from Europe's migrant failures -- before it's almost too late in the US, too. That's tomorrow's Saturday Politics.