Berlin to Closely Watch Islamic Congress

Agencies

BERLIN, 14 September 2004 — German authorities will be closely watching an “Arab Islamic Congress” in Berlin next month, an Interior Ministry spokesman said yesterday, amid claims the meeting is aimed at recruiting terrorists. “We will be following it closely,” the spokesman told a routine government press conference, adding that the city-state of Berlin was responsible for “any measures that might have to be taken.”

Organizers of the congress, to be held from Oct.1 -3, say the meeting, which is open to all Muslims and European citizens, is aimed at combating “US and Israeli globalization and hegemony.”

The meeting, which is meant to forge links between Europeans and the Arab world, is also a step in “supporting the resistance movement against the aggression and occupation in Palestine and Iraq,” the organizers said on their website.

On Saturday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish lobby group, called on Germany to ban the congress and claimed it was an effort to recruit terror operatives.

“The Berlin ‘First Arab Islamic Congress in Europe’ is not an innocent exercise, but a political platform for radical Jihad and a market for potential European youth recruits to the ranks of terrorism,” it said in a statement.

A spokesman for the organizers, calling themselves “Humanity on Hold”, confirmed the plans for a conference, but declined to give further details.

The German Interior Ministry said it would monitor the conference, but added the city government was in charge. “We are aware of the plans and we’ll keep track of them,” said Berlin city spokesman Claus Guggenberger, declining further comment.

Volker Ratzmann, head of the opposition Greens party in the city parliament, said the meeting should be banned. “Islamist events that are set to create a network for violence and that call for violent acts must not be held in Berlin or elsewhere”.

German authorities would find it difficult to stop the conference due to strict legal hurdles, as earlier efforts to ban public gatherings have shown. Neither the city nor the federal government wanted to comment on the probability of a ban.