Extremism of foreigners

Currently, there are nearly seven million foreign nationals from almost any part of the world living in Germany. By far the biggest part of them is law-abiding, but in late 2006, extremist resp. terrorist groups of foreigners in the Federal Republic of Germany –excluding Islamist groupings - had a membership of some 25,250 individuals.
Most of these organisations do not want to violate German security interests in the first place but consider Germany to be a safe haven which they can pursue their objectives in their home countries from and also materially support like-minded individuals there.

These are e.g. left-wing extremist groups of foreigners pursuing the objective of abolishing the existing state and social order in their countries of origin and of replacing it by a communist social order. These groupings also carry out anti-imperialist agitation in particular against the United States of America.

As regards some groups, their former left-wing extremist orientation has lost significance and instead, ethnically motivated efforts aimed at gaining independence have been given priority. For example, the "Peoples Congress of Kurdistan" (KONGRA GEL) which was founded after the "Freedom and Democracy Congress of Kurdistan" (KADEK) had been dissolved, according to its own statement is currently aiming at achieving greater cultural autonomy for the Kurdish people within the existing limits of a democratic Middle East. However, on 1 June 2004, the organisation terminated the so-called "unilateral" cease-fire in Turkey. Consequently, the situation in the Kurdish areas has been marked again by increased fighting between the Turkish armed forces and KONGRA GEL's "People's Defence Forces" (HPG) with numerous casualties on both sides. Since August 2004, activities of a till then unknown grouping in Turkey called the "Freedom Hawks of Kurdistan" (TAK) have been registered. This group has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on civil, in particular tourism-related targets in Turkey.

Furthermore, adherents of extremist Iranian opposition groups in Germany have been agitating against the system of rule in the Islamic Republic of Iran and with manifold activities are trying to be removed from the EU and US lists of terrorist organisations.
Asian separatist organisations like e.g. the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam" (LTTE) and Sikh organisations in Germany also concentrate on propaganda activities and the collection of funds.