These are not really the best of times for those who want to join the holy war. In any case, not if they are coming from Germany.

The Russian government recently reported that a German was shot in Chechnya. Thomas Hamza F. from Ulm was only 25 years old when members of a Russian Special Task Force shot him. F., who was a convert to Islam, is the third German to lose his life while serving on the side of the Chechen rebels. He died near Serzhen-Yurt, a village near Grozny that the Russians considered a stronghold of the underground fighters.

Reports of such casualties may soon be coming from an entirely different area of the world - Iraq. For weeks German security authorities have been aware that Muslims living in Germany have shown a marked interest in the Iraqis' guerilla war against the Americans and their allies. August Hanning, President of the Federal Information Service (BND) says, "Fighters have also been leaving for Iraq from Germany."

The security authorities have even cited statistics: There are said to be 19 known cases by now, but questions still remain. There is little reliable information about who is leaving for a harmless home visit, who is actually going there to fight, and who will decide only after he gets there.

The case of the Iraqi, Mohammed L., 29, who was arrested by a special task force last Tuesday at the main train station in Munich, seems relatively clear-cut. It is alleged that not only did he get fellow countrymen into Germany, but he also negotiated to send fighters to Iraq. In the course of their search the police discovered forged passports and drivers licenses.

Mohammed L. is a member of the Ansar al-Islam network, a militant Islamic group which dreams of a religious state in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and is suspected of being responsible, among other things, for the attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Ansar al-Islam, which is as morally rigid as the Taliban, bans music and the wearing of jeans. The group also has followers in Germany.

Meanwhile, Ansar al-Islam is alleged to have made common cause with Abu Mussab al Sarkawi, the former commander of one of Osama Bin Laden's training camps. The Karlsruhe Federal Prosecutors's Office has been searching for Sarkawi since last April on an arrest warrant that accuses him of being the ringleader of a terrorist coalition. He is alleged to have ordered his followers in Germany to launch attacks.

The phenomenon of terrorists on the move is nothing new. Muslims from Germany also fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Usually theirs were suicide missions with no significant effect on the outcome of the war. And it will probably be the same in Iraq, no matter how many more terrorists undertake the journey.

True, there is no Jihad travel bureau, but it's not hard for radicals to find people hanging around many of the mosques with similar sympathies who can help them out with the name and phone number of a brother. With addresses like that in Iran, Turkey, and Syria the road eventually leads to Iraq. Ansar al-Islam, especially, is suspected of taking foreign fighters into its ranks.

Their view of life may be medieval, but their methods of recruiting are modern: In addition to videos of the war in Chechnya, which have been in circulation for years, the Islamists are now also showing pictures of terrorist attacks on the Internet. In Iraq assassins are allowing themselves to be video-taped while engaged in an attack.

Even though only a few cases have become known up to now, investigators agree on several facts about the Jihad fighters leaving from Germany: Those who are going to fight in Iraq are under 30, live on welfare or have jobs in fast food joints or assembly lines. Usually they have no families.

Meanwhile, to limit the stream of volunteers - those coming from Germany probably present the smallest problem - the U.S. government has reinforced border controls. And President George W. Bush has already warned Iraq's neighbors, "We expect people like that will not be allowed to cross the border." BND Chief Hanning is afraid that Iraq will become a "crystallization point" for Islamists from all over the world, that young Muslims are now going to wage their holy war in Baghdad and Falluja as they did earlier against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

This dark prognosis is confirmed by recent developments: In France, Jean-Louis Bruguière, the Investigating Magistrate in charge of terrorists cases in Paris, says that dozens of recruits have already departed since last summer. In Cairo authorities last week arrested 27 students who are suspected of intending to go to Iraq. One British citizen is dead: Wail al-Dhaleai from Sheffield, a naturalized citizen from Yemen was one of Britain's most promising hopes for the Olympic Games in Athens. The athlete left his wife and child, and died in October during a suicide attack in Iraq. He had not previously been identified as a fanatic.

The members of the clique around Abderrazak M., an Algerian, didn't look like religious warriors either. Dressed in Nike shirts and the latest athletic shoes they romped and played on the athletic fields in Hamburg. Nevertheless, M. is one of the big shots on the Hamburg Islamic scene. The Algerian is respectfully called "sheik"; they say he even fought in Chechnya.

On March 20, M. and two of his fellow Muslims headed toward the war zone via Vienna and Istanbul. To be on the safe side, they traveled separately. They met up in Damascus and from there, investigators believe, they intended to join Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq.

Nothing came of their plan. M. and company were already under observation in Hamburg. The Syrians evidently were warned and detained the group, and after a few weeks deported them back to Germany. It is probable that in addition to these three, two other Hamburg Islamists entered Iraq. In May the Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution could do no more than stand by and watch as the group around M. left. Because there's really not much that can be done legally in such cases. "One cannot legally prevent someone from going to Iraq on the chance that they might shoot American soldiers there," says Manfred Murck, second-in-command at the Hamburg Office for Protection of the Constitution. The Jihadis would have to boast about it publicly beforehand.

Nevertheless, M. has been in jail for more than a week. But only thanks to the Italian courts. They intend to prove that he was also recruiting for the holy war in Milan.

European terrorism experts are worried not only about those who are leaving for Iraq, but above all those who manage to return. Because those who survive the war are considered heroes by their radical fellow Muslims. They have always been the focal points of the loosely linked al Qaeda networks. They have international contacts, are battle-tested and effortlessly inspire other young Muslims to fight like them.

The Germans have learned a bitter lesson: It was veterans like these who inspired the Hamburg suicide pilots to join the Jihad.