German intelligence services targeting Muslims

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, American and European security services have been given wide powers to classify Muslim organizations as “legitimate” or not.

Two recent reports, issued by the International Crisis Group and the Open Society Institute EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program, criticized how the Verfassungsschutz (German intelligence services) have been handling what they call the “Islamist threat”.

“Islam and Identity in Germany”, the report by the International Crisis Group, accused the German intelligence services of applying a slippery slope view of “Islamic extremism.”

On the other hand, Nina Mühe, a cultural anthropologist at the Open Society Institute EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program said that German intelligence services have been provided with a misleading definition that makes it hard for them to differentiate between real and misguided Muslims.

Although Muslims living in Germany are estimated at around 3 to 3.2 million, Verfassungsschutzc classifies any Islamic group as an “automatic threat to the state.”

In 2003, supporters of the Caliphate State, Hezbollah, Hamas and Hizb Ut-Tahir were banned from the country, while Iranian organizations, including the Islamic Center in Hamburg and Imam Ali Mosque, are currently under observation.

The two reports heavily criticized the intelligence services’ treatment to Milli Görüs (IGMG), which represents a large number of Turkish-Germans. According to the Open Society paper, Christian organizations, who have attempted to work with Milli Görüs are being discouraged from doing so.

In December 2006, the Ministry of Interior withdrew from funding a conference to promote Evangelische Akademie Loccum’s charity work in East Africa. The withdrawal came after the ministry learnt that a participant- and one of the initiators of this inter-faith project - was Mustafa Yoldas, a member of Milli Görüs. In a challenge to the ministry decision, Evangelische Akademie invited Yoldas in appreciation for his work.

This wasn’t the only challenge that the German intelligence faced as Milli Görüs filed lawsuits accusing the Verfassungsschutzc of unfair innuendos and accusations. Court orders were in favor of the Milli Görüs, which currently prevents officials from reprinting “falsehoods and hearsay” against the organization.

There is a series of victory cases for members of Milli Görüs as the administrative court in Hessen granted four members of the organization the German citizenship even though the organization was under observation by the Verfassungsschutz.

Nina Mühe points out in her report, though centre-left and left parties may have more liberal views when it comes to immigration, when it comes to the Muslim community they can fall prey to Islamophobia, as they have “stronger resentments ... nourished by a mixture of feminism and secularism”.

-- AJP and Agencies

UK testing high-tech CCTV units to spy on Muslims

Britain's national security service MI5 is testing surveillance cameras in Muslim-dominated areas as part of a controversial scheme that the government claims is aimed at curbing extremism.

Based on the latest satellite technology, the $10,000 cameras have a ring of eight powerful lenses that can provide a panoramic view.

The system’s software can also indicate up to 50 behavior patterns to identify a person "as a potential terrorist."

Within a year, the surveillance cameras will be ably to identify "facial movements indicating tension and other furtive behavior," a MI5 officer said, according to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Known as "The Bug," the camera can identify "individual groups loitering or acting in a suspicious manner," the officer added.

When a target is identified, a ninth lens mounted on the base of the system zooms in and follows every move of the suspect.

"It can track him down a street, in and out of a building and follow him as he drives away," said the MI5 officer.

According to G2 Bulletin, the cameras have been tested in Muslim areas of London, Bradford, Luton and other Midland cities.

The installation of CCTV units in Muslim areas is among other radical measures imposed by the British government following the July 7, 2005 bomb attacks on London’s transport system.

Many of Britain's 1.7 million Muslims have complained of being unfairly targeted by the police after the attacks.

British Muslim leaders warn that the government’s approach to tackling extremists includes radical measures such as racial and religious profiling of Muslims that could backfire and hamper efforts to integrate them into the British society, something the government has long claimed it’s trying to avoid.

-- AJP and Agencies

Swedish police “constantly harassing” Muslims

To further develop anti-Muslim tactics that were primarily created by many Western governments, including the U.S. and Britain, the Swedish Emergency Management Agency (Krisberedskapsmyndigheten) is holding a crisis exercise in Stockholm next week that is said to contribute more to the stigmatization of Muslims.

"The security police constantly engages in harassing Muslims and actively contributes to fuelling Islamophobia," wrote Stockholm's opposition vice mayor Yvonne Ruwaida and member of parliament Mehmet Kaplan on Dagens Nyheter's opinion page.

The crisis management program, with 4,000 participants, has given the terrorists the name of “Bogalanders” who live in one of the predominantly immigrant ' Million Homes ' areas, where their religion is split into two factions and they are protesting against the occupation of holy ground in 'Bogaland'. The scenario revolves around a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction.

Kaplan and Ruwaida comments on the previous saying “The parallels with Muslims and Islam are not exactly hard to find”. They also raised questions about the reason behind the fact that the security police “specifically targets Muslims” and proposed a parliamentary inquiry on its future operations.

The rise in Islamophobia following the September 11 attacks affected Muslims’ efforts to integrate in Western societies, and took them two steps backward.

However, Muslims started in recent years to play an active role in western nations’ societies, and in many countries they proved to have successfully integrated into the West, breaking the barrier that has long prevented real participation in those countries’ social life and political system.

-- AJP and Agencies