German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday defended the cancellation of a major soccer game the night before, while security officials said Germany had become a possible target of Islamist extremists.<br />“I was as sad as the millions of fans that this cancellation had to happen,” Ms. Merkel told reporters in Berlin.<br />“But the security agencies made a responsible decision.”<br />Officials said no explosives were found in the stadium and no arrests were made.<br />omestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen said Germany’s Islamist community counted about 34,000 members, and that some 300 of them posed a serious security threat.<br />The country’s total Muslim population is almost five million, the largest in the European Union, according to the Pew Research Center.
