Muslims Alarmed as Germany Plans Islamist Database

[Khephra]

Muslims Alarmed as Germany Plans Islamist Database
By REUTERS

Published: July 8, 2004


Filed at 11:25 a.m. ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany said Thursday it would create a central database on suspected radical Islamists, provoking concern from the country's large Muslim community.

Interior Minister Otto Schily also announced plans to boost the fight against terrorism by pooling intelligence from the three national security agencies in a new joint analysis center.

The moves, announced after two days of talks between Schily and interior ministers from the 16 states or 'Laender', are designed to strengthen Germany's defenses against terrorism by making its complex security structure work more efficiently.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-security-germany.html

[DrWeird]

1. The database will also include...

suspected homosexualists and radical jewishters.

[hightime]

2. Maybe they can give them all a yellow crescent to wear on their clothes.

[Kellanved]

3. This is the result of several current topics, overlapping.

The Bundesrat upper house is a house of states. The German states are it's members. The conservatives have a big majority in it.
At the same time the German Federal System, formed for the 1871 Empire, is in dire need of reforms. So topics like this one end up getting used as poker chips in the Federation/States talks.

In this case the actual objective was to move central parts of the Federal Criminal Police to Berlin - at the moment it is in Wiesbaden and Bonn. Contrary to their party line, that security is everything, the conservatives blocked any attempt to get the Federal Police moved.
So this offer: it is basically the giftwrapped plan to move the Police HQ to Berlin.
At the same time it prepares the German State based Police system for upcoming EU legislation. The EU treaties are not written to allow for Federations.

To my knowledge the whole thing will not result in more data being collected.

Of course it can not be ignored that Schily is the most RW Social Democrat I've ever met.

[jukes]

4. khephra

i think the lead is alarmist, but the content innocuous.


the lead says "islamist data base", but the body qualifies "radical". what they're talking about is crosstalk on existing normal police intel pools. no indicator of rights violation, or even investigation or snooping involved.

i wd think the germans wd be extremely cautious of creating lists based on race, nationality, or religion. they're pretty sensitive about the past.