On Wednesday, the German government adopted a draft law that facilitates the expulsion of foreigners who support terrorist crimes, including social media networks, in a phenomenon that has been growing since the Hamas attack on Israel.

The draft, which constitutes an amendment to the Right to Residence Law, stipulates that approving or promoting a single terrorist act will be sufficient for the conditions of expulsion to apply to this case, while the current law refers to making supportive statements that address several facts.

One comment leads to expulsion

The Ministry of Interior said, “A single comment that glorifies or supports a terrorist crime on social networks could constitute a serious incentive to carry out the expulsion process.”

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck commented in a statement that this law represents “a great gain and strength for our country so that persecuted individuals can find protection in Germany. But those who violate the basic liberal order by praising terrorism and celebrating atrocity crimes lose their right to remain.”

He added, "Islam belongs to Germany, not Islamic extremism."

The government considered in its project, which still requires the approval of parliamentarians, that this online glorification fuels a climate of violence that would incite extremists or people who may be considered dangerous to commit terrorist acts.

Interior Minister Nancy Fairs said through the Funke Media Group newspapers on Wednesday that “Islamic agitators who still mentally live in the Stone Age have no place in our country.”

Judicial rulings

Following the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the killing of 1,195 people, most of them civilians, and the subsequent Israeli military response to Gaza that has so far left more than 37,600 dead, most of them civilians, the networks witnessed Social media posted many comments encouraging hatred.

The German judiciary issued several rulings, the most prominent of which was that an imam in Munich was fined 4,500 euros after he wrote on the day of the attack, “Everyone has their own way of celebrating the month of October.”

At the beginning of June, many people on the Internet praised a knife attack launched by an Afghan on members of an anti-Islam group in the city of Mannheim (west). The attack, which resulted in the death of a young policeman, shocked the country.

The attack revived the debate about the necessity of expelling Afghan criminals to their country, after the implementation of this measure was halted following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.