Did German Authorities Make Mannheim Attack Victim a Target by Dubbing Him an “Enemy of Islam”?

Speaking with the journalist Julian Reichelt from his hospital bed in an intensive care unit last week, Michael Stürzenberger, the main target of the recent Mannheim knife attack, discussed whether it was not in fact German authorities which made him into a target for the Afghan assailant by labelling him an “enemy of Islam”.

More specifically, as Stürzenberger explained, the Bavarian domestic intelligence service or “Office for the Protection of the Constitution” officially designated Stürzenberger and his Pax Europa movement as “Islamophobic” for many years. But the German term for “Islamophobic”, Islamfeindlich, in fact derives from the noun Islamfeind, which literally means not ‘Islamophobe’ but rather ‘enemy of Islam’. Feind = enemy.

This official designation is widely cited and repeated in the German media and by self-styled ‘anti-fascist’ activist groups claiming to protect democracy and pluralism against the likes of Stürzenberger and other alleged ‘extremists’.

See, for instance, the below screen cap of an appeal on the so-called ‘Democrateam’ website. The apparent object of the appeal is to disrupt an event which was held by none other than Michael Stürzenberger and Pax Europa in Cologne just six weeks before the Mannheim attack. The poster up-top reads, “Together against preachers of hate; Take away Stürzenberger’s stage”. But note the phrase highlighted in yellow. It reads, “Michael Stürzenberger is regarded as a far-Right enemy of Islam”. The text then goes on to note that he is under observation by the Bavarian “Office for the Protection of the Constitution”.

It is not hard to appreciate how designating someone as an “enemy of Islam” would amount to painting a bullseye on him for Islamic radicals who are known to commit acts of violence against people so designated.

This is why in his interview with Stürzenberger for the German alternative news site NiUS, Julian Reichelt asked whether Bavarian authorities did not have “blood on their hands”. And much the same question can be asked – and answered – concerning the ‘anti-fascist’ activist groups, which appear, curiously, to be acting in consort with the political authorities.

Stürzenberger, in any case, strenuously rejects the label ‘Islamophobic’ or ‘enemy of Islam’, insisting on the distinction between Islam as a purely spiritual orientation, with which, he says, he has no issue, and specifically political Islam or Islamism.

“I would have never thought it possible that we would be attacked by a radical Muslim with the intention to kill at one of our events”, Stürzenberger told Reichelt,

We always differentiated [between Islam and political Islam or Islamism]. We have a large poster: “Our criticism is not directed at Muslims but rather at political Islam.” The assailant was standing in front of this poster.

The assailant, Sulaiman Ataee, can be seen looking directly at the poster in question in the video still below.

Stürzenberger told Reichelt that during Pax Europa’s 135 events since 2018, the group had had many “good discussions” with “lots of Muslims”, in which group members explained that they had “nothing against them” but merely against those aspects of the Sharia which are incompatible with basic principles of democratic societies: “The equality of men and women, protection of minorities like Jews and homosexuals – in general that we all want to live together in peace – we don’t want non-believers to be disparaged.” Stürzenberger insisted that “modern Muslims” who passed by their information stands would sometimes agree with them.

Ataee stabbed or slashed Stürzenberger five times during the attack, opening up a large wound from the top of his lip to the middle of his cheek and stabbing him once in the jaw, twice in the thigh, and once in the chest, narrowly missing a lung. Five other people were wounded in the attack, with police officer Rouven Laur dying later of his injuries.

Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack.