EUROPE'S IMAMS: PREACHERS OF HATE

By Uwe Siemon-Netto

UPI Religious Affairs Editor

LEIPZIG, Germany – Western Europe appears increasingly incapable of addressing the challenge posed by radical Muslim preachers, as demonstrated by prominent cases in France and Germany.

When authorities attempt to expel militant clerics for violating the law, administrative judges consistently block these measures, regardless of how egregious the offender's statements or actions may be.

Metin Kaplan's case exemplifies this problem. Considered by many in Germany as a premier enemy of the state, this Turkish imam immigrated illegally 22 years ago and declared himself "Caliph of Cologne." Despite lacking a valid visa, Kaplan remains in the country.

Kaplan served four years in a German prison for inciting a rival's murder. Under German law, a three-year sentence would have been sufficient grounds for expulsion, yet he remains in the country under a form of house arrest.

His organization, called "Caliphate," maintains its own intelligence service, according to Der Spiegel newsmagazine. The group's general staff reportedly recruits fighters for Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan, and sends emissaries to Osama bin Laden. Nevertheless, Kaplan remains in Germany.

During a 1998 police raid on his house, authorities discovered $1 million in cash wrapped in plastic bags and hidden in his dirty laundry, plus several kilograms of gold. Despite this, he collected nearly $200,000 in welfare payments from the city of Cologne between 1988 and 1999.

Kaplan maintains a following that parades around Cologne with mock wooden Kalashnikovs. In a magazine published by his Islamist "Caliphate," he stated that shooting infidels is acceptable if it serves Islam. He openly called for the violent overthrow of the Turkish government, despite court orders forbidding such statements. He also agitated against "those Jews who drive the world to ruin and constantly cause wars." While a German citizen would face prison for such statements, Kaplan received a fine equivalent to $1,200 and was allowed to remain in Germany.

The German federal minister of the interior and his counterpart in North Rhine-Westphalia have tried unsuccessfully to remove Kaplan from the country; at one point, an airplane stood ready to transport him to Turkey. Seven courts have dealt with Kaplan's case, including the nation's highest court—the Federal Constitutional Court. However, his lawyers consistently find judges willing to halt his expulsion on grounds that he might face torture in Turkey.

The administrative court of Cologne ruled that precisely because his positions are so extreme, he must not be sent to Turkey, where he would face prosecution. Ironically, the more inflammatory an illegal alien's statements, the stronger the argument for keeping him in Germany. For radical Islamists, hate-mongering has become a means of self-protection against expulsion.

"You cannot explain Kaplan's case to the average German citizen anymore," Cornelie Sonntag-Wolgast, chairwoman of the Interior Affairs Committee in the German Parliament, told Der Spiegel. "This is the meltdown of the rule of law."

"Kaplan is only the tip of the iceberg," an anti-terrorism official in Hamburg told United Press International. "Far worse figures have made their permanent home in our nation and in neighboring countries."

While Germany, still attempting to overcome the specter of its Nazi past, remains particularly sensitive to potential charges of violating a minority's human rights, neighboring France faces similar challenges.

France has allegedly expelled 36 radical imams in recent months, according to French participants at a recent interfaith meeting in Qatar, though this figure could not be verified in Paris. However, government attempts to stem the radicalization of Muslim institutions in France appear to be failing. Two years ago, interior intelligence sources estimated that about 24 of the 400 mosques and houses of prayer in the greater Paris region served as centers of radical Islamism. This number has now risen to 36.

As in Germany, administrative court judges in France often frustrate authorities' attempts to remove foreign extremists. Consider the case of Abdelkader Bouziane, an imam at a mosque in the Lyon suburb of Vénissieux.

He was deported to his native Algeria in April after telling Lyon Mag, a monthly magazine, that he favored stoning adulteresses to death. His lawyers later claimed he had not properly understood the French term "lapidation" for this punishment. However, he did state that husbands are permitted to beat their wives as prescribed by the Koran—though men must not slap women in the face but instead strike their legs and bellies. This statement resulted in his expulsion to Algeria, which lasted precisely one month.

An administrative court in Lyon then rescinded the expulsion order. He is now back in France with his two wives and 16 children, who are housed in government-assisted low-cost lodgings. He faces an investigative judge.

"To cover up polygamy, all you have to do is declare each wife the head of a single-parent family," said Alain Marsaud, a member of the French Parliament. "Nobody knows how many such cases exist. Apparently tens of thousands of people are involved."

As exasperated as his German counterparts, Marsaud criticized the weakness shown by successive French governments in dealing with fundamentalism. "This has led to the development of polygamy in France," he lamented.