11 Stabbed at German “Diversity Festival” — 3 Dead

A brutal stabbing spree at a street festival in the west German city of Solingen last week left three people dead and eight injured, five of them seriously. This was the second lethal Islamist knife attack in Germany in less than three months. In a darkly ironic twist, the Solingen festival was supposed to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the city’s founding, yet for some reason it had been branded the ‘festival of diversity’ (Festival der Vielfalt) by the city authorities. In its aftermath, the German elite’s attachment to multiculturalism has never looked so delusional.

The suspect, Issa al-H, is a 26-year old Syrian man who came to Germany in 2022 as a refugee. He was arrested on Saturday after a frantic 26-hour search. Before he turned himself in, police had raided an asylum shelter, erected roadblocks and called on local residents to stay indoors.

Just hours after the attack, Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility. The terror group released a statement on Telegram about an ‘IS soldier’ who had targeted Christians ‘in revenge for Muslims in Palestine and everywhere’. Yesterday, ISIS also published a video. It shows a masked young man – supposedly the suspect – holding a long knife and swearing allegiance to the leader of IS in Arabic.

The German government’s response to Solingen has been extremely feeble so far, and has been met with intense criticism. ‘We must not be intimidated by those who now want to sow hatred’, said interior minister Nancy Faeser in the aftermath. Apparently, this was all the passion she could muster, despite the attack’s brutality.

‘The triple knife murder at the “Festival of Diversity” in Solingen symbolises the failure of what was supposed to be celebrated there – and the helplessness of a politics that reacts to pure violence with only emotive words’, writes one commentator on Cicero, an online magazine. A journalist in Focus warns that Germany is in danger of capitulating to terror. He quotes a senior police officer who, after Solingen, said that every German citizen now needs to consider carefully whether to go to a festival, a football match or even to take public transport. Several German cities cancelled planned public events over the weekend.

Even traditionally pro-government outlets have found the response to Solingen wanting. ‘Politicians must do more for internal security. The government coalition parties must now show that they are still capable of tackling the problems in the country’, writes the usually on-message Tagesspiegel.

Of course, no government has the power to stop every terror attack, not least when Islamist attacks are becoming increasingly low-tech, involving just knives or vehicles, and are often carried out by lone assailants. But what has made the Solingen attack so explosive is the fact that Issa al-H should have been deported several months ago. He came to Germany in 2022 after he had already registered for asylum in Bulgaria. When his asylum application failed in Germany, the police issued a deportation order, but officials could not find him at his last known residence. Because he managed to stay in Germany for more than six months, the deportation order expired. He was then granted ‘subsidiary protection’ and was placed in refugee accommodation in Solingen.

As well as appearing weak and helpless, the government has also exposed its fear and loathing of voters. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s Social Democratic (SPD) president, called on the public to ‘stand together against hate and violence’. This was not an appeal to stand up to Islamist terrorism. No, it was a warning to the public to reject so-called Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment (because, apparently, ordinary folk cannot distinguish between peaceful migrants and terrorists). The word Islamism didn’t even feature in his speech. The not-so-subtle message to voters was to stop being angry with the government over yet another Islamist attack – and don’t you dare turn to populist parties for answers.

But Germans have every right to be furious with their elites. Islamism has clearly declared war against the West, but those in charge are not willing to even acknowledge this. They fear that simply talking about the problem could boost populist parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

What has now become undeniable is that the German government fears the populist anger of the masses far more than it does actual Islamist terrorism. Arguably, the government has facilitated the rise of radical Islam, however unwittingly, with its promotion of multiculturalism. Indeed, the current German government has consistently downplayed, and at times even dismissed, the threat emanating from Islamism. One of Nancy Faeser’s first acts as interior minister in 2022 was to abolish an expert government working group on Islamism. She instead set up an expert group on ‘Islamophobia’. All too predictably, a report by the group would go on to accuse several prominent critics of Islamism as racists.

The patronising implication of all this is that tackling Islamist extremism risks alienating ordinary Muslims or inspiring hatred against them. It holds both Muslim and non-Muslim Germans in contempt. The multicultural project essentialises minority groups, reducing them, in the eyes of the establishment, to their most reactionary elements – and thus ring-fencing those extremists from criticism.

Even after the attack in Solingen, senior SPD figures have claimed that there is nothing to see here – that it raises no questions about Islamism or multiculturalism. Instead, the government has tried to turn the focus on to knives. ‘Germany has a problem with knife violence’, said Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of the SPD in the Bundestag, as if the knives themselves were responsible for this heinous attack. His call for an almost total ban on knives on the streets has been seconded by Faeser, by the Green Party and by others, including Berlin’s mayor from the opposition CDU.

Here we find yet another dark irony. Solingen was once proud of its industrial heritage in… knife production. Solingen is a byword for high-quality knives and cutlery. Since 2012, it has called itself the ‘Klingenstadt ’, or the city of blades.

Solingen is a city that has long struggled to cope with both mass migration and the decline of its traditional industries – two problems that are fuelling Germany’s populist wave. Around 30 per cent of Solingen residents have a migrant background. Syrian refugees now constitute the city’s third-largest immigrant group. The fact that Solingen’s 650th anniversary celebrations were turned into a ‘festival of diversity’ is itself telling. The event could have been a perfect opportunity to try to connect locals and migrants alike with the proud history of the city they share. Instead, it was used to pursue one of the German elite’s pet projects – celebrating and sacralising difference rather than focussing on what can bring all groups together. Germans are, understandably, getting tired of having multiculturalism stuffed down their throats at every opportunity.

The government’s appeals to unity won’t wash. Just how divided Germany is will become clear this coming Sunday, when regional elections are held in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony. In both states, the AfD and the new left-populist BSW are set to make major gains. If either of these parties does benefit from the Solingen attack, the government only has itself to blame. It has consistently failed to stand up to Islamist extremism. Voters have every right to insist they don’t want terror attacks like last week’s to become the new normal.

Source: Spiked