More on Germany’s belated action against the planned Berlin conference in October. From AP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
Germany will deny visas to participants of a planned Islamic conference in Berlin next month that security officials say appears to be justifying terrorism, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
Organizers of the Oct. 1-3 event call on the meeting’s Web site for “the liberation of all the occupied territories and countries in struggle against the American-Zionist hegemony and occupation.”
Organizers say they expect between 500 and 800 participants, but have declined to say who will speak and where in Berlin the gathering will be held.
German embassies worldwide have been instructed to refuse visas to anyone who says they want to attend, Foreign Ministry spokesman Walter Lindner told a regular news briefing.
“Fundamentalists and hate preachers have no place in Germany,” he said.
Germany’s top security official, Interior Minister Otto Schily, said this week that the conference “seems to fall under the heading of justifying terrorist acts.”