German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Islamist terrorism predates last year’s record influx of refugees, seeking to separate the two issues after a series of attacks last month eroded her popularity.
Addressing a party event in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Wednesday, Merkel said it’s “apparent” that terror groups are seeking to win recruits among asylum seekers in Germany. She also cited Islamic State operatives involved in the Paris attacks in November who entered Europe with the wave of migrants from the Middle East.
“But the phenomenon of Islamist terror, or of ISIS, isn’t one that arrived with the refugees,” Merkel said in the town of Neustrelitz, using one of the acronyms for Islamic State. “It’s one that we have and have had” already in the past, she said. – READ MORE
