Increased Spying on Muslims

[Dr. Shane]

Germany considers increased spying on Muslims

After thwarting what might have become a "massive" attack on American installations, German authorities will review ways to fight homegrown terrorists, including a proposal to allow Internet spying on all German converts to Islam...

"Germans converting to Islam should be watched because they tend to show particular fanaticism in order to prove worthy of their new religion," he said Thursday.

The number is growing, according to the German Islam archive. In the last decade, only about 300 Germans each year converted to Islam. But in 2005, the number rose to 1,000, and it jumped to 4,000 in 2006.

As shocked as they were by the arrests, the idea of spying on other Germans unnerves many in civil-rights minded Germany, where government surveillance recalls memories of Adolf Hitler.

Gisela Piltz, a Liberal Party member of parliament, said she thinks it unwise to infringe on civil liberties so soon. She noted that while it was a shock to hear of a suspected Islamic terrorist named Fritz, it also was a shock this summer to hear of alleged terrorist doctors in England and Scotland.

"There is no pattern, and while we were perhaps the first to be attacked by Islamic terrorists from our native populations, it was only a matter of time. Terrorists are not poor, they are not stupid, and they do not want to get caught."

Karl-Heinz Kamp, a terrorism expert at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a right-of-center research center in Berlin, said the political debate on civil liberties versus security shouldn't be framed by a single plot.