Germany Arrests Alleged ISIS Supporter Who Obtained Gun and Scouted Church for Attack

German authorities have arrested an alleged Islamic State supporter who prosecutors say had already obtained a firearm and scouted a church intended to become the first target of a new terrorist group.

Gailan Al-M., a 24-year-old Iraqi national, was arrested in Brandenburg’s Barnim district on Thursday by officers from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office and Federal Police.

The allegations describe a plot that had moved beyond extremist rhetoric.

Germany’s Federal Prosecutor says Al-M. shares the radical Islamist ideology of Islamic State and began planning attacks in Germany in spring 2025 against people he regarded as “unbelievers”.

He then allegedly began trying to build a group capable of carrying them out.

Prosecutors say he successfully recruited one person, whose identity remains unknown.

Attempts to recruit additional members failed.

But preparations for an attack allegedly continued.

Al-M. obtained a firearm, according to prosecutors, and physically reconnoitred a church in Bremen.

The church was intended to be the group’s first target.

Authorities have not publicly identified which Bremen church was allegedly selected, nor disclosed when or how an attack was intended to take place.

That leaves important parts of the alleged plot unknown.

What prosecutors have disclosed establishes three separate stages of preparation:

an ideological commitment to Islamic State’s radical Islamist worldview;

an attempt to recruit people into a terrorist organisation;

and practical preparations involving a weapon and reconnaissance of a target.

The distinction matters.

German authorities are not alleging merely that Al-M. consumed extremist material or expressed sympathy for Islamic State.

They accuse him of attempting to establish a terrorist organisation, preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and violating weapons law.

The Federal Prosecutor obtained an arrest warrant from an investigating judge at Germany’s Federal Court of Justice on September 8.

Al-M. was arrested on September 17 and brought before the federal judge, who ordered him held in pre-trial detention.

The unidentified person prosecutors say agreed to participate has not been publicly located or identified.

Nor have authorities alleged that Al-M. succeeded in creating a fully functioning Islamic State cell.

His attempts to recruit further participants failed.

But investigators say he had already reached the point of possessing a firearm and examining the Christian place of worship he wanted his proposed group to attack first.

The alleged progression is what makes the case significant.

Ideology became recruitment.

Recruitment became preparation.

And preparation had reached a gun and a target.

Sources

• NDR – Federal prosecutor allegations and Bremen church target
• Kreiszeitung – Arrest warrant, firearm and pre-trial detention details