HAMBURG, Germany -- Through alleys scented with oranges and peppered lamb, Afghan spice sellers sip morning tea with Pakistani vegetable vendors. Mothers wearing head scarves hurry children to school, past trickling sounds of water as men in mosques wash their hands in deep porcelain sinks before prayers.
Just beyond the German train station, past prostitutes and methadone addicts, the Muslim neighborhood unfolds, moving, as it has for decades, to its own sequestered rhythms. Life here, though, has been disrupted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America. More undercover police ply the alleys, more young men are hauled in for questioning. Phones are tapped. Businesses are searched. Computers are confiscated.
Hamburg's Muslim neighborhoods are retracting -- some would say they are being pushed -- further away from German society. Anger, distrust and cultural suspicions are widening rifts between German and Islamic communities throughout this nation of 82 million -- 3.5 million of whom are Muslim. Those on both sides worry that deepening divisions will stoke radical elements and complicate this country's long-standing problem with integration.
"If a few Muslim men gather on the sidewalks, the police come and say, 'Ah, you're from Afghanistan. Do you sympathize with the Taliban? With Osama bin Laden? With Al Qaeda?' " said Abdul Hai Zakarwal, an Afghan cleric at a local mosque. "Germans are now suspicious when they look into an Arab face. I have no innocent blood on my hands."
Hamburg has a storied history as a cosmopolitan city-state built on trade and commerce. But its recent past is clouded by Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and his terrorist cell. Logistics for the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon were refined here. Fanaticism was cultivated, money raised -- all quietly, beneath the surface. It is an irony of sorts that while Atta was living at Marienstrasse 54 and a few Hamburg mullahs were preaching jihad, or holy struggle, the primary task of police in this port city of 1.7 million was curbing skinhead and neo-Nazi violence.
The police now have put this neighborhood under a microscope. There is little doubt that religious extremists live among the Moroccan booksellers and Turkish barbers.
Police estimate that Hamburg has 1,000 Islamic radicals, about 100 of whom are considered dangerous. Still, that is only a fraction of the city's Muslim population of 150,000, many of whom claim that they are stereotyped and harassed.
"Many Germans in Hamburg have lost their innocence," said Heino Vahldieck, head of the city's domestic intelligence agency. "Their trust of Muslims has diminished, and this is affecting Muslims. They all feel under suspicion. A girl wearing a veil these days could easily become a heated topic at a school board meeting. I don't know how to stop that."
Less than a mile from Vahldieck's office, a man who gave his name only as Isaak stood in the dusk outside an Albanian mosque. He was bundled in a jacket, a cap snug on his head. A construction laborer, he had a thick chest and rough hands.
Isaak moved to Germany from Macedonia 13 years ago. He is a Muslim with a 4-month-old son and barely enough money for rent. He pays taxes and speaks German, but he has been denied citizenship.
"I used to feel German. But now I feel like more of a foreigner," Isaak said. "Every time I unzip my backpack and pull out a newspaper, the Germans stare at me and wonder if it's a bomb. I blame the politicians. They've frightened the public. Germans think there are hundreds of thousands of sleeper cells all over the country."
He kept speaking, an angry whisper concealed with a smile.
"There are people here who think Atta is a good man," Isaak said. He didn't count himself as one.
"What happened in the U.S. was tragic," he said. "But what about all the murdered Muslims in Palestine, Bosnia and Kosovo? What about Muslim suffering? Some in this neighborhood say America brought the attacks on itself.... And here the neo-Nazis are putting hate leaflets in our mailboxes."
About 80% of Germany's Muslims are Turks who migrated here after World War II. Their children attended German schools and took German jobs. They were followed by others: war refugees from the former Yugoslav federation and migrants fleeing economic turmoil in Africa and the Middle East.
Because they straddled two worlds, balancing Muslim souls with German livelihoods, assimilation for Turks, Pakistanis and Afghans has always been confusing. Sensitive of its Third Reich past, Germany is careful not to discriminate against different cultures and is tolerant of religious expression by law. But many Muslims, even ones with German citizenship, complain that they feel estranged. Young women often discard the head scarves of their faith in order to blend in better. Men sometimes dye their hair blond and wear blue contact lenses to disguise their dark features.
