Police have arrested an alleged Islamic State fund raiser at a migrant centre in Germany.
The 31-year-old man, who anti-terror campaigners claim uses the nom de guerre Laith Al Daham Deiri, was detained at a camp in the town of Unna in the west of the country on suspicion of helping fund the terror group.
German tabloid newspaper Bild reports that an anti-Islamic State (IS) group had posted images of the man on the internet, accusing him of drumming up support for IS. They claimed he had come from the Deir Ez-Zor region of Syria, which has seen heavy fighting between government and IS forces, and arrived in Germany with his sister and her husband a week ago.
State prosecutors have confirmed the arrest, but said the investigation was “at the beginning” and could not give more details.
The arrest comes as police closed a mosque and Muslim association in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg for allegedly funding Islamic State jihadis.
The state’s interior minister, Reinhold Gall, explained: “We do not tolerate associations that advocate the use of violence to promote religious concerns and collect donations for terrorist groups.
“The association supports, in the form of the so-called ‘Islamic State,’ an Islamist group that carries out religiously-motivated attacks against persons and property.
“Through the association, donations have been collected for terrorist groups and fighters recruited for the Syrian conflict. In addition, the association and its members glorify jihad and religiously motivated terrorism.”
Around a fifth of the 50 fighters who travelled to Syria from Baden-Württemberg reportedly frequented the mosque.
On Wednesday, the federal government announced a new 250-strong police unit to counter terrorism. National interior minister Thomas de Maizière said: “The danger in Germany from international terrorism is high, as it is across Europe. It was high, it is high, and it will remain high for the foreseeable future.”
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