Counterterrorism Blog

In recent months, a confluence of several events fueled speculation among some German officials that left-wing extremism in Germany is on the rise and may even turn to violence reminiscent of the terrorism practiced by the Red Army Faction (RAF) in decades past. Although Germany’s Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, today rejected rumors of a renewal of left-wing terrorism in Germany as baseless, one still wonders whether Europe may witness a reincarnation of left-wing terrorism in the near future. Is it possible that left-wing groups and Salafi-Jihadist networks in Europe may cooperate in the future? To that end, it is worthwhile to examine some of the similarities between left-wing extremism rampant in Germany during the late 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s on the one hand, and the Salafi-Jihadist movement on the other.

Several events provided impetus to the renewed debate surrounding left-wing extremism in Germany. On March 25, 57-year old Brigitte Mohnhaupt, a member of the “second generation” of the RAF, was released after spending the last 24 years in a German prison for her role in the killing of nine people. A former colleague of hers from the RAF, Christian Klar, asked for an early release, only to be rejected by President Horst Köhler after the latter found him to be unrepentant. German fear that left-wing extremists are planning major disruptions at the forthcoming summit of the G-8 in Heiligendamm heightened concerns of a left-wing terrorist resurgence. In early May, the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz, VS) of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Johannes Schmalzl, noted that the “old spirit of the RAF” was wandering across the “leftist scene.”

According to the recently released report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the number of left-wing criminal activities perpetrated in 2006 increased slightly by 2.8 %, while acts of left-wing violence decreased by 3.8 %, and number around 1200. According to the report, 6,000 individuals belonging to the German left-wing scene are willing to use violence.

It is premature, however, to conclude that left-wing terrorism in Germany is on the rise. Marxist-Leninist and Maoist ideology, once reverberated by most European left-wing extremists, is largely discredited. It is more likely that an increasingly number of left-wing extremists will adopt Salafi-Jihadism, which has long replaced left-wing thought as the predominant ideology among young European rebels.

Interestingly, there are a number of parallels between these two ideologies: Like the radical leftist wave that hit Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, the causes of Salafi-Jihadism lie in part in a revolt against perceived injustice. The goal of both the leftist movements and Salafi-Jihadists is essentially an elusive quest to help bring about a more just society—violence is seen here as a justified means to an end.

Second, both the New Left and Salafi-Jihadists reject bourgeois values, imperialism, and materialism. They both believe that they are struggling not only against an enemy, but against an idea that lies at the core of all problems afflicting their peers, and indeed the entire world. They believe that the scope of activities, and the importance of their actions are global in nature, as are their goals.

Third, parallels between the radical New Left and the strengthening Salafi-Jihadist movement can also be found in the individuals recruited to these respective ideologies. In both cases, young recruits tend to feel alienated by the more settled lifestyle of their parents, with which they are unable to connect. Both cases exhibit generational conflicts: Members of the New Left often felt dissociated from the bourgeois lifestyles of their parents. At present, a similar generation gap crystallizes among young Muslims and their parents. Many Muslim youth protest the Islam of their parents, and adopt a more radical Islamic lifestyle as a form of protest. Meanwhile, Salafi-Jihadist preachers exploit the dislocating effects of the youth’s breach with the parents and traditional religion.

It is possible that left-wing extremists in Germany and other parts of Europe will be increasingly attracted to the main contemporary anti-imperialist ideology, Salafi-Jihadism. Al Qaeda itself, in fact, is making more and more efforts to portray itself as the voice not only of oppressed Muslims, but of the downtrodden all over the world. Note Ayman al-Zawahiri’s statement of last week, in which he said, “I want blacks in America, people of color, American Indians, Hispanics, and all the weak and oppressed in North and South America, in Africa and Asia, and all over the world, to know that when we wage Jihad in Allah’s path, we aren’t waging Jihad to lift oppression from the Muslims only, we are waging Jihad to lift oppression from all of mankind….” It remains to be seen how many left-wing revolutionaries will take Zawahiri’s appeal literally.