A 41-year-old Syrian man set fire to two buildings, rammed his vehicle into a grocery store, and threatened passers-by with a machete in the western German city of Essen. While authorities and mainstream politicians are treating the case as an act of revenge by a mentally deranged man against his ex-wife’s new boyfriend, the attack bears the hallmarks of Islamist violence.
According to German media reports, the perpetrator set fire to two residential buildings on Saturday afternoon, injuring 31 people, including eight children who remain in critical condition. Photos circulating on social media show people clambering down ladders to try to escape one of the torched buildings.
The fire department said people stood at windows and on balconies for air because they could no longer escape through the smoke-filled stairwell.
The man continued his rampage by ramming his vehicle into a greengrocer’s shop, backing up, and then ramming it against the shop once again. The man then headed for another store where he got out of his van, and started wielding a machete and a combat knife, threatening passers-by who apparently kept him at a distance by throwing objects at him. Several men eventually detained the suspect, using shovels and iron bars, before police arrived to arrest him.
According to the police, “initial investigations revealed that the 41-year-old’s motive was that his wife had separated from him.” The perpetrator was already known to the police for threats, damage to property, and domestic violence. That’s allegedly why his wife left him.
Security sources told daily Die Welt that they are not treating the case as a terrorist attack. The perpetrator’s lawyer said there was no political motive, and Mayor Thomas Kufen emphasised that the attack was directed against a specific family, not random targets. According to the police, during the course of events, the Syrian man targeted only buildings where people who were somehow connected to his former wife’s new boyfriend lived or worked.
However, others pointed to the method of the attack and the extent of violence that bear the hallmarks of an Islamist ‘honour attack.’
The fact that he threatened ordinary passers-by with a machete and a knife, indicates that he tried to attack innocent people unrelated to his ex-wife. He was also wearing Islamist combat clothing when he committed the attack: he tied a Palestinian scarf around his forehead as a headband and was wearing pennants with the colours of the Palestinian flag on his clothing.
The danger posed by Islamist extremism in Germany, as well as many parts of Western Europe, has increased significantly following the Palestinian terror group Hamas’ attack on Israel last year.
There has been a spate of knife attacks in Germany in recent months committed by mostly Syrian and Afghan migrants. Among the most tragic incidents was the brutal killing of three festivalgoers by a 26-year-old Syrian failed asylum seeker in Solingen in August, and the murder of a policeman by a 25-year-old Afghan failed asylum seeker in Mannheim in May.
With the anti-immigration AfD party constantly increasing its popularity, and registering its first regional electoral victory at the beginning of September, the left-liberal government has decided to react, reinstalling temporary border checks at all of Germany’s borders, and announcing new measures to deport failed asylum seekers. But the opposition AfD and the centre-right CDU think this is not enough, and that illegal migrants should be pushed back at the border.
Reacting to the spree of violence committed in Essen, co-leader of the AfD Alice Weidel commented on her X social media account: “The question arises as to why not just this Syrian is still in Germany at all—instead of his safe country of origin.”
“Germany remains a safe country for Islamists. For everyone else, it remains a dangerous country,” commented conservative media outlet NiUS.de.
