{"id":280894,"date":"2016-12-31T06:32:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T06:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=280894"},"modified":"2016-12-31T06:32:15","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T06:32:15","slug":"merkel-islamist-terror-is-greatest-threat-to-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/12\/merkel-islamist-terror-is-greatest-threat-to-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Merkel: Islamist terror is ‘greatest threat’ to Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"
Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her New Year message.<\/p>\n
Referring to the deadly truck attack in Berlin by a Tunisian asylum seeker, she said it was “sickening” when acts of terror were carried out by people who had sought protection.<\/p>\n
She said 2016 had been a year of “severe tests”.<\/p>\n
But she also said she was confident Germany could overcome them.<\/p>\n
“As we go about our lives and our work, we are saying to the terrorists: ‘You are hate-filled murderers, but you do not determine how we live and want to live. We are free, considerate and open’,” Mrs Merkel said.<\/p>\n
Twelve people were killed when Anis Amri drove a truck at crowds at a Berlin Christmas market two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the year, a teenage Afghan refugee wounded five people in an axe attack on a train in Wuerzburg and a Syrian whose asylum application had been refused blew himself up outside a bar in Ansbach, wounding 15 other people.<\/p>\n
The attacks have led to some criticism of Mrs Merkel’s policy of admitting more than a million refugees and migrants last year.<\/p>\n