The Extremist Trap: Don't Sacrifice Civil Rights in Battle against Islamists --- After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the US sacrificed its values and betrayed its civil rights. With a new Islamist threat brewing, Germany must avoid avoid making the same mistakes. Its democracy is strong enough to withstand the threat. --- The world of Islamism has long since reached Germany. Salafists are battling Kurds in our city centers; they walk with their Niqab-draped wives in Berlin's Humboldthain park; they collect money for their fellow believers fighting in Syria. They badmouth the country that provides for them but which doesn't make them happy. They dream of a better world: Islamic paradise. Now they know where it is, too. Paradise lies just across the Turkish border. It calls itself Islamic State. -- There, these men will allegedly find everything they can't get here in Germany: adventure, regard, a bit of power, maybe women and a reason to live -- even if they have to die for it. Around 500 German Islamists, both immigrants and converts, have thus far traveled to Syria or Iraq to join the jihad. Almost 10 percent of them have been killed. The situation looks similar in other Western countries: Around 900 French, 500 Britons and 100 Americans are now fighting for paradise. Those who survive may one day return home, as brutalized fighting machines. -- Experts warn that Islamic State will seek to carry out attacks in Europe, if possible big ones such as those carried out in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. In such an event, the self-proclaimed Islamic State Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, could take over leadership of the global jihad movement from al-Qaida. To achieve that aim, systematic recruiting efforts are underway in Germany -- in mosques, on social networks and among friends. German Islamists would no doubt be particularly pleased about an attack here in Germany. -- That prospect provides no grounds for fear. Germany can defend itself, as quietly as possible and with all of the measures it has at its disposal. -- Read More, A DER SPIEGEL Editorial, http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/islamist-extremism-should-be-fought-with-democratic-means-a-996895.html