the government facilitates the expulsion of foreigners glorifying acts of terrorism

The German government adopted a bill on Wednesday that facilitates the expulsion of foreigners who promote terrorism, including on social networks, a phenomenon that has been growing since the Hamas attack on Israel. According to this text, which modifies the law on the right of residence, the approval or promotion of a single terrorist act will be sufficient in the future to fulfill the conditions for expulsion, whereas currently it is necessary to expressly express statements of support on several facts.

“From now on, a single comment that glorifies and endorses a terrorist crime on social media can constitute serious grounds for expulsion”details the Ministry of the Interior. “It is a great achievement and a strength for our country that persecuted people can find protection in Germany. But those who flout the liberal basic order by cheering terrorism, by celebrating horrific murders, lose their right to remain.commented Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck in a press release.

These glorifications fuel a climate of violence likely to incite extremists or potentially dangerous people to commit terrorist acts, underlines the government in this text which must still be approved by the deputies. “Islamist agitators, who mentally still live in the Stone Age, have nothing to do in our country”added Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in the newspapers of the Funke media group on Wednesday.

Incitement to hatred following the attack of October 7

After the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 which left 1,195 dead, mostly civilians, followed by Israeli military reprisals on Gaza which killed 37,658 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-led government , numerous hateful posts had been published on social networks. Convictions were also handed down, notably against an imam from Munich, who will have to pay a fine of 4,500 euros for having posted on the day of the massacre: “Everyone has their own way of celebrating the month of October” accompanied by a smiley.

At the beginning of June, a knife attack perpetrated by an Afghan against members of a movement hostile to Islam in the city of Mannheim (west) was also celebrated in numerous posts on social networks. The affair, which cost the life of a young police officer who had intervened, shocked Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz described these messages as “slap in the face for the victims, their loved ones and our basic democratic order” during a speech in the Bundestag and announced a tightening of the law on evictions. The Mannheim attack also relaunched the debate on the expulsion of Afghan criminals to their country, suspended since the Taliban took power in August 2021.