Merkel dismisses refugees-Islamic extremism link

Says Germany had that problem of extremism before too.

“Islamist terrorism by the Islamic State isn’t a phenomenon that came to us with the refugees, it’s one that we had before too,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has dismissed suggestions that the influx of refugees over the past year has brought Islamic extremism to Germany.

German news agency DPA has quotes Ms. Merkel as saying that “Islamist terrorism by the Islamic State isn’t a phenomenon that came to us with the refugees, it’s one that we had before too.”

Ms. Merkel was speaking late on Wednesday at a political rally in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where her Christian Democrats face strong competition from the nationalist alternative for Germany party in the state elections on September 4.

String of attacks

The country has been shaken by a string of attacks, two of which were the first in Germany claimed by the IS group.

In those, only the attackers both asylum-seekers were killed. In an unrelated attack, a German teenager killed nine people in Munich.