Berlin - The German authorities are watching the rising tide
of conversion to Islam with some concern, the daily Berliner Zeitung
reported Thursday.
The newspaper cited figures compiled by a Muslim group that showed
that 4,000 Germans had converted last year, compared with just 1,000
in 2005.
It was common knowledge that the German authorities were
monitoring converts to Islam closely, it said.
Quoting Interior Ministry officials, the newspaper said there had
been a rise internationally in the number of converts involved in
Islamist terrorist acts.
Among them are 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid, a Briton who tried to
blow up an American Airlines flight in December 2001, and Muriel
Degauque, a Belgian suicide bomber who blew herself up in Iraq in
November 2005.
Guido Steinberg, who researches Islamic issues, said extremists
were targeting new converts, and terrorist expert Rolf Tophoven said
converts tended to be fanatical.
According to Salim Abdullah, who runs the Islam Archive, there are
currently 3.3 million Muslims in Germany, 18,000 of them of German
origin.
The Interior Ministry estimates the number of converts at 15,000
but notes that woman converts tend to bring up their children as
Muslims and estimates that 40,000 native Germans are living according
to Muslim custom.
Abdullah attributed the increase in conversions to rising
Islamophobia. 'Whenever Islam falls under suspicion, many people
start to feel solidarity with the religion,' he told the Berliner
Zeitung.
This had been visible immediately after the September 11 attacks
in 2001.
Abdullah noted that more women than men were converts, in a ratio
of 60 to 40, but added that conviction rather than marriage to a
Muslim was usually the reason.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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