“It would be wrong to cast a general cloud of suspicion over converts to Islam”, German Attorney General Monika Harms

“It would be wrong to cast a general cloud of suspicion over converts to Islam”, German Attorney General Monika Harms said today, following the smashing last week of an alleged Islamist terrorist cell.

The revelation that two of those arrested on September 4 for planning potentially devastating bomb attacks against US targets in Germany were Germans who had converted to Islam provoked debate on the radicalization of converts.

Speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur in an interview, Harms said many converts to Islam were peaceful, although watchfulness was needed.

But she added: “We can’t cast suspicion on entire population groups. That’s not acceptable, and nobody wants that.”

Reports Wednesday that a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) had advocated an official register of converts sparked outraged responses from all sides.

Wolfgang Bosbach later denied he had made the remark attributed to him, but the debate continued nevertheless.

On the question of making attendance at terrorist training camps punishable – all three of those arrested last week underwent training at camps in Pakistan last year – Harms said she believed current German law already made this illegal.

But she acknowledged legal difficulties, “because not everyone who goes to a training camp immediately turns into a terrorist.”

Harms said there were clear indications that those arrested last week, plus a further seven suspects still being monitored, were receiving instructions from abroad.

“The arrest warrant alleges membership of both a domestic and also a foreign terrorist association. There were links and influences. Those active here were not working on their own,” she said.

Berlin Interior Senator Ehrhart Koerting said opinion was divided among the ministers from the 16 states, although there was unity that people who had undergone paramilitary training at terrorist camps “should be taken out of circulation.”

Sources:

“Germany’s top prosecutor against suspecting all converts to Islam” Digital Journal September 13, 2007

“German politicians split on stiffer anti-terrorism laws” Expatica September 13, 2007

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