It was not a blind alarm or an exaggerated tip from a questionable informant that prompted the police in Hagen to intervene quickly and consistently.
The information from a foreign secret service about a planned Islamist-motivated attack on the synagogue of the Jewish community was so concrete that, according to the German security authorities, the greatest danger was imminent.
It was right to act quickly and decisively, especially in view of the bloody attack on the synagogue in Halle two years ago and the failures of the police at the time. Even if no explosives or parts for building bombs were found after the arrest of the suspect young Syrian, the direct chat contact he apparently admitted to an IS terrorist is not a harmless boyish prank. This is also the view of the responsible judge, who ordered pre-trial detention due to the urgent suspicion of the preparation of a serious, state-endangering act of violence.
Shortly after the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and five years after the Islamist mass murders in Paris, however, the process shines a spotlight on the still virulent danger, also from anti-Semitic motives, that threatens from this side. A danger that has increased sharply again as a result of the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan. It is therefore good news that in this case the secret services or police did not grope in the dark or ignore clues.