Muslim Militants Worry Germany : Extremism: Spreading violence from Algerian conflict concerns Bonn. Recent hijacking, threats to embassies raise alarm.

BONN — Germany, the Islamic world’s best friend and business partner in Europe, suddenly is confronting the possibility that fundamentalist violence could strike at home.

The recent hijacking of an Air France jetliner and a threat last week from Islamic militants against Western countries with embassies in Algeria have raised concerns about the possibility of fundamentalist attacks on German targets.

A new report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns that 14 Islamic fundamentalist groups are organized in Germany and have a growing following among the country’s 2.5 million Muslim residents. The extremists’ advocacy of violence “endangers internal security,” the report says.

There are also reports that supporters of the Islamic Salvation Front, one of the principal groups fighting to oust Algeria’s military-backed government, are using Germany as a base to smuggle weapons to fundamentalist combatants at home.

“Again and again, there are indications and reports that (Salvation Front) supporters here do not just distribute propaganda but also acquire weapons,” Eckhard Werthebach, president of the office that issued the report, told German television Tuesday.

The head of Germany’s federal police agency, Hans-Ludwig Zachert, said over the weekend that his agency had evidence that Muslim militants were planning attacks in Germany.

“We must prepare for the worst,” Zachert told German television.

Germany maintains good diplomatic relations and extensive business dealings with the Islamic state of Iran, despite criticism from the United States, which views Iran as the mastermind of Muslim violence around the world.

The conservative government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl has also allowed prominent Islamic figures to take refuge in Germany. The leader in exile of Algeria’s Salvation Front, physics professor Rabah Kebir, lives here, as does the family of jailed Salvation Front spiritual leader Abassi Madani.

But the Christmas hijacking of the Air France commercial jet dramatically brought Algeria’s bloody war into Europe, and the threats against Western embassies indicate that the violence could spread beyond the old French colonial power, which supports the Algerian government.

The four Armed Islamic Group hijackers killed three people before they were killed themselves when French police commandos stormed the plane in Marseilles.

About a week later, several Western embassies in Bern, Switzerland, received letters ordering them to close their embassies in Algiers by last Saturday or their nationals would be targeted and killed.

The letters mentioned both Algerian Muslim groups, but it was not clear who had sent them.

The governments, including Germany, Britain and Canada, did not close their embassies, and no retribution has been reported so far.

“We did not close the embassy, but we are aware that this could lead to terrorist activity by (the Armed Islamic Group) against German institutions abroad or in this country,” a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

The Armed Islamic Group is often considered a rival of the Salvation Front, which issued a statement from Germany criticizing the hijacking. The Salvation Front insists that it is pursuing only peaceful means in its effort to oust the military-backed regime.

But the French government has long warned Germany that Algerian extremists are using the country as a rest stop and urged the government to keep Kebir, in particular, under close scrutiny.

Some German officials believe that the distinction between the two Algerian groups is fabricated.

The Salvation Front “tries for political reasons to distance itself from terrorist acts committed by (the Armed Islamic Group), but we suppose that is just a technical measure,” said Hans-Gert Lange, spokesman for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Cologne.

Some German officials stress that only a small minority--perhaps 1%--of the Muslims living in Germany are extremists. They say they doubt fundamentalists would risk losing Germany’s hospitality by launching any kind of attack against German targets.

But others note that the number of fundamentalists is growing and fear an even greater increase if Muslims’ social and economic situation in Germany deteriorates and the immigrants see no future in the country.