German transport facilities are on alert
(Source: Der Tagesspiegel)

THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT HAS issued a terror warning for the country and especially for Berlin, where a major terrorist attack is expected “before the end of the month.” Security fences have gone up around the Reichstag building, machine-gun toting policeman with sixteen kilo bullet-proof vests are patrolling public spaces, security has been doubled outside the city's Jewish institutions, the BVG public transit authority has proclaimed its second highest security level, and Berlin’s senator for interior affairs (i.e. for police and public safety), Ehrhart Körting, has asked all citizens to report “strange-looking” people and activities to the authorities. According to American security officials, up to four al-Qaeda operatives are already in or near Berlin, where they can rely on over 400 Islamist allies in the capital itself and 3,000 nationwide, many of them fresh from terrorist training camps and military action in Afghanistan  and Pakistan.

The tabloid headlines are at fever pitch, inspiring the usual false alarms: Yesterday, a police bomb squad shut down Tauentzienstrasse and examined what turned out to be an empty suitcase left in front of a bank branch office. The central train stations of Düsseldorf and Hanover were shut down briefly following the discovery of “suspicious” objects, and similar reports are coming in from all across the country. A suspected explosive device found in a piece of luggage at Windhoek airport in Namibia and apparently bound for Munich on an Air Berlin jet turned out to be an American-made dummy bomb used for testing purposes.  

 
Police setting up security fence around the Reichstag
(Source: Die Welt)

Is the threat real or is it a politically motivated exaggeration? It’s almost impossible to say from the outside, although the vast expense involved suggests the government is serious about it. One thing is for certain: From recent anti-Muslim legislation and agitation all the way to Germany’s plans to extend the mandate for its 5,000-member ISAF force in Afghanistan, Islamists feel entirely justified in adding Germany to their list of hot targets. Terrorists have already targeted the country several times since 2001 and have been foiled solely by efficient police work, not by a lack of murderous drive on their part.  

Whatever does or doesn’t happen by the end of the month, there is no doubt that the terror scare provides excellent publicity both for the new Dutch-inspired “Freedom Party” of Berlin politician René Stadtkewitz, who will be running candidates in next fall’s Berlin election before going national, and for Thilo Sarrazin’s runaway anti-Muslim bestseller “Germany is Abolishing Itself.” (I have already written about both phenomena at length on this blog.) But as a Berliner myself, with eyes to see and ears to hear, who incidentally once lived for seven years in a Muslim-dominated inner-city neighborhood, I can’t help wondering sometimes just what this “Muslim threat” really amounts to: Is it a threat from Muslims or a threat to Muslims?  

 
Berlin's Sehitlik Mosque

I ponder this question because Berlin’s largest mosque was struck by arsonists last night. The perpetrators reached the building complex of the 1,500-seat Sehitlik Mosque in the borough of Neukölln by crossing the cemetery, and started a fire against the wall of the community funeral home, since the mosque itself is protected by a fence. A caretaker discovered the fire before the propane gas canister that had been deposited in the flames could explode and plucked it out of the fire. The damage was minor, largely restricted to burn marks on the wall of the building. This attack was preceded by two earlier arson attacks in July and August. None of them caused serious damage, nor have any suspects been identified, but the repeated assaults on the building have raised temperatures among local Muslims, who have become the object of daily harangues against their religion and culture. 

 
Terrorism or mere "sabotage"?