Updated on
Summary Officials say 30 extremists have left the country and traveled to Egypt in recent weeks.
Interior Ministry spokesman Jens Teschke said Wednesday that the so-called Salafis were urged by Austrian preacher Mohamed Mahmoud to join him in Egypt after his ultraconservative Islamic organization group Millatu Ibrahim was banned in Germany in June.Der Spiegel reports this week the Salafists see an opportunity to live the true Islamic life or to fight unbelievers in post-Mubarak Egypt.Teschke confirmed the Spiegel story, and says the German government is carefully watching the situation.Germanys intelligence and security agencies have increasingly been monitoring the actions of the Salafis, who number some 4,000 in Germany, in recent months.
