More Salafists are living in Germany than ever before, domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen said on Sunday.
Maasen said the number of people adhering to the fundamentalist Islamic ideology had "risen to an all-time high," with the German intelligence agency BfV giving a figure of 10,800 Salafists in Germany as compared with 9,700 in December last year.
A growing "fragmentation" and drift to the private sphere of Salafism in Germany was making the scene harder to observe for authorities, Maassen said.
The BfV said the movement's recruitment drives have now more or less left the streets and mosques, and added that Salafists were instead being radicalized in small conspirative groups on the internet. The agency also pointed to the growing number of women's networks as posing a challenge for authorities, who have problems accessing them.
Security authorities see the Salafist movement as a potential springboard into Islamist terrorism, particularly for young Muslims. [Deutsche Welle] Read more
