German Vice Chancellor warns Saudi Arabia over Islamist funding
From the story.
"We need Saudi Arabia to solve the regional conflicts," Sigmar Gabriel, the head of the Social Democrats (SPD) who share power with conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, told the mass-circulation newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
"But we must at the same time make clear that the time to look away is past.
"Wahhabi mosques are financed all over the world by Saudi Arabia.
"In Germany, many dangerous Islamists come from these communities," he said.
Saudi Arabia follows the ultra-conservative Wahhabi form of Islam, and some outsiders see it as a cause of the international jihadist threat.
In a statement, the Saudi Arabia embassy in Berlin said the Kingdom was interested in countering the radicalization of young people and referred to a previous statement in which it denied wanting to build 200 mosques in Germany.
"Like Germany, we are part of the anti-Islamic State coalition and fighting side by side against terror," it said.
The Saudis have cracked down on jihadists at home and cut militant finance streams, but some groups, including Islamic State (IS) and al Qaeda, follow an extreme interpretation of the Salafi branch of Islam of which Wahhabism was the original strain.
Germany is worried about growing support for Salafism.
The domestic intelligence agency says the number of Salafists has risen to 7,900, up from 5,500 just two years ago.
Another senior Social Democrat, Thomas Oppermann, also homed in on Saudi Arabia, saying Wahhabism offered a ideology for IS insurgents and contributed to the radicalization of moderates.
"We don't need or want it in Germany," he told the weekly Welt am Sonntag.
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