German authorities will be closely watching an "Arab Islamic Congress" in Berlin next month, an interior ministry spokesman said Monday, 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." Organisers of the congress, to be held from October 1-3, say the meeting, which is open to all Muslims and European citizens, is aimed at combating "US and Israeli globalisation 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 organisers 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. Shimon Samuels, head of the center's European headquarters in Paris, told AFP: "These are people with links to Al-Qaeda and their goal is to raise money and recruit young Europeans for suicide missions or as messengers." The Wiesenthal Center -- known primarily for its work in tracking down Nazi war criminals -- urged the German government to cancel the conference, "investigate its organisers and ban entry to foreign participants who endanger public order." |