From the BZ editorial team
They lure young people on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube – and thus ensure initial radicalization. This is followed by private messages, invitations to closed WhatsApp and Telegram groups, online seminars and vows of loyalty. And then comes the invitation to Berlin. This is what a dropout reported to “Welt am Sonntag”.
Members of a Salafist group are said to be swearing their followers into their radical Islamist ideology in a basement in the middle of Wedding. Rumors about this “Sharia basement” have been circulating on social networks for weeks. Young girls should also belong to the group. In some cases, their parents are said to have reported them missing.
How “World on Sunday” According to reports, the basement of the Berlin Salafist group is said to be in a backyard on Müllerstrasse, a busy street in a neighborhood with a high proportion of migrants. The yellow old building is inconspicuous. A long corridor leads between the restaurant and the construction site to the inner courtyard. What exactly happens there? Not clear.
Dropouts report that primarily young people between the ages of 13 and 20 received private messages via social networks inviting them to discuss Islam. Then recruiting becomes more aggressive. Private groups, telephone calls and personal conversations follow in which the radical form of Islam is preached as the only true religion.
You then have to swear an oath to the spokesmen. In the case of the Salafist group from Berlin-Wedding, these should be men “between the ages of 20 and 30 who are of Swiss, German, Turkish, Afghan and Syrian origin,” reports “Welt am Sonntag”.
With the invitation to Berlin, the group’s leaders finally sealed off their members, those who left told the paper. It is said that young girls in particular are married there according to Islamic law, and their families are described as infidels.
According to residents, an apartment in a side wing of the house is a prayer meeting place. Fully veiled women can often be seen there.
► One of them is said to be Nisa Y. (17) from Ludwigshafen.
The girl has been missing since April 8, 2022. According to her father, she is said to have become radicalized during the Corona period and then left voluntarily, at least initially. A dropout told “Welt am Sonntag” that she was in the same group as her in Berlin. A saleswoman at a nearby supermarket in Wedding also claims that the young woman regularly goes shopping there wearing a veil – whether voluntarily or indoctrinated by the group’s leaders is unclear.
► Sara S. (16) from Innsbruck is said to have had a similar experience.
She disappeared on August 16, 2022. Dropouts also report seeing her in the Berlin group. In the past there had been indications that the 16-year-old had been married according to Islamic law and was being held in a basement – albeit in Munich.
The police responsible for Nisa’s missing case will continue to investigate the case until the girl comes of age, but they have no concrete information about her whereabouts. A criminal case initiated by the public prosecutor’s office in Frankenthal (Rhineland-Palatinate) for “abduction of minors” against the leader of the group from Wedding also came to nothing because the man could not be found.
According to the Berlin police, “no so-called ‘Sharia basement’ was identified,” the report continues. However, investigators said that the house was searched and suspects and witnesses were questioned – without any clear results.