Interior Ministers in Favor of Central Islamic Database

Interior ministers of Germany's 16 states have largely endorsed a proposal to set up a central database for suspected Islamic extremists in Germany. At a meeting in Kiel, German Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily stressed that in light of the growing danger posed by Islamic terrorism, "all information had to be saved and analyzed centrally in future." Schily urged the regional interior ministers to enshrine the same in unambigious legislation. Schily called the current practice, whereby different domestic intelligence agencies at the state and federal levels shared information, "unsatisfactory." However, ministers were unable to agree on the establishment of a central EU register that would facilitate the exchange of information about absconding and suspected criminals between different European countries.