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Germany Imposes Ban on Islamic Group
Germany's top security official on Wednesday outlawed an Islamic organization that he accused of extremism and spreading anti-Semitic propaganda in universities. Interior Minister Otto Schily said premises across the country had been searched overnight in connection with the ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir. He did not comment on the outcome, but his ministry said that 25 buildings were searched. "The organization is distinguished by the fact that it is active in universities with anti-Semitic slogans," Schily told Germany's ARD television, adding that the group - whose name translates as the Liberation Party - had long been under observation by German authorities. Watching people and keeping records - old German tradition The Interior Ministry said the group advocated the destruction of Israel and called for the killing of Jews. In a statement, it cited an event at Berlin's Technical University last October at which a speaker made anti-Semitic remarks and urged the introduction of a caliphate, or strict Islamic state, in Muslim countries. In November, federal authorities raided 27 apartments belonging to sympathizers of the Hizb ut-Tahrir across Germany on suspicion they were founding a radical Islamic organization. No arrests were made. "We have not yet been able to find recognizable organizational structures," Schily said Wednesday. "We have to assume that essentially they have their organizational base abroad." Someplace with a lot of sand, I'll bet Hizb ut-Tahrir sharply rejects accusations of extremism and says its aim is to restore the "Islamic way of life" in the Muslim world. It said the ban was "tantamount to thought policing." "And that's our job as a Islamic group!" "We are not against Jews or Christians - we are against the state of Israel," said Imran Waheed, the group's representative in Britain. The group "doesn't believe in the use of violence and armed struggle to achieve its aims," he added. "Unless we don't get what we want" Under anti-terror legislation introduced after the attacks in New York and Washington, Germany eased legal protections for religious groups and allowed for the first time outlawing of foreign-based groups, opening the way for the government to ban the Caliphate State organization in 2001 and the Aachen-based Al-Aqsa organization last November. The party was formed in Jordan in 1953 by Taqi Eddin al-Nabahani, a Palestinian who died in unclear circumstances in the Palestinian territories in 1978. Egyptian authorities outlawed the group in 1974 after blaming it for an attempted coup. The current leader is the Palestinian Abdul-Kaddim Zalloum, whose whereabouts are unknown. In hiding? Taking a dirt nap? Three of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and several other suspected plotters lived and studied in Hamburg, Germany, and authorities moved quickly after the attacks to tighten anti-terror legislation. Germany loosened legal protections for religious groups, allowing the government to ban the Caliphate State organization run by Turkish militant Muhammed Metin Kaplan in late 2001. That group openly calls for the overthrow of Turkey's secular government and its replacement with an Islamic state. Last August, German authorities shut down the Al-Aqsa organization in the northwestern city of Aachen, saying the group posed as a charity to collect money for the radical Islamic movement Hamas. Germany is trying to get its house in order Posted by: Steve 2003-01-15 |
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