Austria’s jihadist scene is diverse: not only the Islamic State, but also Al Qaeda could have been a reference point for the Munich attacker.
Vienna/Munich – While the exact Background to the foiled attack on the Nazi Documentation Center near the Israeli Consulate General in Munich on Thursday (5 September) are still being investigated, it is already clear: the now deceased shooter was an Austrian with a Bosnian migration background. There is a “very aggressive and relatively large Islamist scene” in Austria, said extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) merkur.de by IPPEN.MEDIA.
Researchers after Munich attack: “Several hundred” jihadists in Austria
Overall, “several hundred” people in the Alpine republic can be assigned to the jihadist scene, Thomas Schmidinger told our editorial team. The political scientist researched the “Islamic State” in Austria and teaches at the University of Vienna and in Erbil in northern Iraq. Since the military defeat of IS in Syria and Iraq, the scene has become more differentiated into groups with different ideological affiliations, but has not shrunk. There are also jihadist scenes in some medium-sized and small towns, explained Schmidinger. The main motivators are IS and its offshoots, such as IS-Khorasan in Afghanistan or the former Al-Nusra Front in Syria. The terrorist organization Al Qaeda is also playing a role again.
Austria’s domestic intelligence service recently named a “mid-high double-digit number” of jihadist threats in its report for 2023. According to the report, 40 percent of jihadist-motivated crimes were committed in Bavaria on the border with Upper Austria. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around 200 such threats were at large in Germany in July. The perpetrator lived in rural Salzburg. According to Schmidinger, Austria continues to have problems in combating and preventing jihadism in rural areas.
Attack in Vienna revealed weaknesses in counterterrorism: Has Austria learned from it?
Most recently, Austria’s security authorities foiled several jihadist attacks. In August, for example, three young people were arrested in connection with a suspected planned attack on the concerts of US pop icon Taylor Swift. At the end of 2023, German and Austrian authorities prevented suspected planned attacks on Cologne Cathedral and Vienna’s Stephansplatz. In 2020, the deadly terrorist attack in Vienna revealed significant weaknesses in counterterrorism. Overall, police work is now functioning better, explained Schmidinger.
The young age of the Munich shooter, his migrant background combined with possible experiences of exclusion and the apparently rapid online radicalization fit into a pan-European development of Islamist terror, said Austrian terrorism researcher Paul Schliefsteiner to our editorial team. Schliefsteiner is the director of the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (ACIPSS), a research center that cooperates with the University of Graz. It was still unclear on Friday afternoon whether the Munich shooter had contact with the scene or whether he was only radicalized online.
Jihadism expert: Austrian authorities pushed scene “largely underground”
Even when IS still controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq ten years ago, there were already “very young IS supporters” in Austria, said Schmidinger. Even then it was clear that young people who, according to Schmidinger, “find no place in society” are particularly susceptible to jihadist radicalization. At the height of IS, however, these young people tried to join IS there. Now, because this “dream country” is missing, these young people are staying in Europe.
One clear change, however, according to Schmidinger, is that the jihadist scene has “largely retreated underground” due to pressure from law enforcement. For example, there are hardly any mosques left in Austria where relevant preachers try to radicalize believers. According to Schliefsteiner, the digital space is now central to radicalization in Austria too.
Terrorism researcher: Munich attacker probably driven by diffuse “fight narrative” against “the West”
At present, it is still difficult to locate the Munich attacker. However, this is not unusual given the “ideological superficiality” and the increasing focus on violence in the scene. Schliefsteiner assumed, based on previous findings, that the attacker was motivated by a diffuse “fight narrative” between “Islam” and “the West”. This is typical of jihadists who have only dealt superficially with ideology. Given the location and time of the crime, there is some evidence to suggest that the intensified conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Islamist terrorist militias contributed to the radicalization. It is therefore possible that the perpetrator also acted out of anti-Semitic motives.
Young jihadists with “superficial ideological knowledge” are not new
It is “not a new phenomenon” that young people are only radicalizing superficially, said Schmidinger. Those who wanted to join IS in 2014, or who did so, mostly showed only “superficial ideological knowledge.” What has changed, however, is that IS is no longer the only reference point. Only the ideological cues have changed, and it is no longer just IS, but also groups such as the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda or the Afghan IS offshoot IS-Khorasan. (kb)
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