Res Publica 2005

Expatia has run an article called "Religious Violence in the Netherlands Alarms Germany."

There is some feeling that they too hold a viper to their bosom.

"These Germans, these atheists, these Europeans don't shave under their arms and their sweat collects under their hair with a revolting smell and they stink," said the preacher at the Mevlana Mosque in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, in the film made by Germany's ZDF public TV, adding: "Hell lives for the infidels! Down with all democracies and all democrats!"

This was from a film secretly made last week in a Berlin moaque. As the troubles flair in the Netherlands, Germans are asking will the troubles come to them? Although there hasn't been a high profile incident yet, there are growing clashes against Jews by Islamic youth taking place.

Germany's tough-minded interior minister, Otto Schily, spoke at the weekend of "a danger" to the country despite successes in integrating the majority of immigrants.

Schily drew headlines earlier this year with a harsh warning to Islamic fundamentalists: "If you love death so much, then it can be yours."

Things in Germany, though, are not the same as in the Netherlands. Most of the Islamists are Turkish, and Germany makes much greater effort into assimilating their immigrants than the Netherlands was doing. Even so,

Germany's "Verfassungschutz" - the domestic intelligence service - estimates there are 31,000 radical Islamists living in Germany of whom several thousands are prepared to use violence.

The biggest group is a Turkish movement named "Milli Goerues" with 26,500 members, which fights against integration of Turks into German society.

In a court case which set security establishment alarm bells ringing, a judge ruled last week week that Milli Goerues membership did not justify a German airport's bid to ban an employee from working within its security zone.

The number of reported crimes carried out by foreign extremists in Germany almost tripled last year compared with 2002, warns the Verfassungsschutz.