"This privilege must fall," said German chancellor Gerhard Schröder when he pledged September 16 to crack down on Islamic groups in Germany in the aftermath of the air attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He was referring to a current law that had enabled Muslim groups the government deems "extremist" to avoid being banned. Banning an organization allows Germany's police agencies to control their operations and detain alleged members.

Failing to make any progress in the investigation of a terrorist cell that supposedly spearheaded the September 11 attack in New York and Washington, the German rulers are promoting the measures as an aid to the search. Authorities say three of the men suspected in the attack had plotted the operation while living in Hamburg. The German authorities are continuing their investigations on other suspects.

By September 18, 15 apartments in Hamburg and four in Bochum had been searched, with little to show.

The German government also announced it will begin detaining and searching people based on racial and other criteria. Profiling of suspects is legal in Germany under legislation adopted in the 1970s, also under the guise of fighting terrorism.

The media has raised a hue and cry, claiming Germany's privacy laws and lesser use of electronic surveillance on telephone calls, as well as the ease of travel within Europe, are factors that make Germany a "safe haven" for immigrants. "Germany is no special hub of terrorism, but like other European countries, a resting place for certain terrorist groups," said former security service coordinator for former chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The Wall Street Journal reported that there are 3.1 million Muslims in Germany, with 31,000 as members of "Islamist" organizations. All but 4,000 of those people are of Turkish origin who are members of two groups that want Turkey to adopt Islamic law as a form of government, and have not been linked to violence outside of Turkey, according to the Journal.

Along with these measures, the German parliament has tabled for now an immigration bill that would have admitted into Germany as many as 20,000 new permanent residents annually. The law was drawn up as a response to the shortness of skilled labor in German industry, according to the Washington Post. It would have become the first comprehensive immigration bill, 45 years after the first Turkish "temporary guest workers" came to Germany. Immigrants have not won many concessions in Germany in the last decades. Turkish immigrants are guaranteed access to limited social services under an agreement between Turkey and the European Community, but they still live under "Alien Laws" which give them few legal rights.  
 
 
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