Man arrested, charged with threatening to attack Muslims in Germany

Police have arrested a 21-year-old German man for allegedly making threats to launch a deadly attack on Muslims, citing last year’s massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, as a model.

The man, a resident of the northern city of Hildesheim, allegedly vowed in an online chat Friday to commit an attack “with multiple dead,” according to Celle prosecutors, The Associated Press reported.

Prosecutors said that investigators searched his apartment and found weapons he intended to use in the attack as well as “data files with radical right-wing contents.”

A court ordered the unidentified man kept in custody Monday on suspicion of financing terrorism and of disturbing the peace by threatening crimes.

Prosecutors said they have found evidence the man had long considered carrying out such an attack, mentioning the Christchurch attack that killed 51 worshippers at two mosques and expressing a desire to launch a similar attack with an intent “to kill Muslims,” according to the AP.

The gunman who has pleaded guilty in the March 2019 mass shooting livestreamed it on Facebook, leading numerous websites to tighten their rules against terrorist and extremist content. Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all signed the so-called Christchurch Call, a nonbinding resolution to better restrict extremist or violent content online.

In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee in October, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that racist extremists are making international connections with one another online.

“We are starting to see racially motivated violent extremists connecting with like-minded individuals overseas online, certainly, and in some instances we have seen some folks travel overseas to train,” Wray said in response to a question from Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.).

Specifically referencing the Christchurch case, Wray said “probably a more prevalent phenomenon that we see right now is racially motivated violent extremists here who are inspired by what they see overseas.”