Europe, Under Islamist Threat, Forced on Its Back-Foot

"We must be able to discuss topics such as freedom of expression in our classrooms without any outside pressure."

"It may hurt when someone has an opinion that conflicts with your world view or religious conviction, but they have a right to say so in all liberty."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

 

"We are ready to accept every Tunisian, but with conditions preserving the dignity and giving him rights to access to all stages of judicial appeals in France before the deportation [in discussions of security matters between France and Tunisia; the deportation of dozens of Tunisian migrants]."

Tunisian Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine

Muslim demonstrators hold placards during a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in Charlie Hebdo in London (photo credit: REUTERS)

Police in Germany Friday announced raids they had carried out on the homes and offices of four individuals they had linked to the 20-year-old man who launched an attack in Austria. German intelligence had sent a request to Austria to have them monitor several Germans who had met with Kujtim Fejzulai, the Islamist attacker shot dead after he killed four people and wounded over 20 others after opening fire in the central nightlife district of Vienna on Monday night.

The Germans had visited Austria this summer and their contacts had been monitored by German intelligence. Austrian authorities made no move to alter their risk assessment of Fejzulal, on early release from prison with a 22-month sentence for attempting to join the Islamic State, but turned back to France by Turkish authorities. Enrolled in a deradicalization course in prison, he was considered to have been effectively deradicalized, earning himself early release.

Police searches near Hamburg in homes and business premises.

 

According to Austria's Interior Minister Nehammer, "immediate personnel consequences" had resulted over the botched heads-up over Fejzulai when Erich Zwettier, head of the local intelligence office in Vienna had resigned. Mr. Nehammer admitted to "intolerable mistakes" in tracking the suspect prior to his deadly shooting spree. As a result of which he ordered the closing of mosques Austrian intelligence now deems a security risk.

Fejzulai, born in Vienna, held a North Macedonian passport; his parents had emigrated from Macedonia to Austria, accounting for the North Macedonian passport in Fejzulai's possession, as well as an Austrian passport. He had planned the attack in the knowledge that residents of Vienna would be out enjoying the last hours before the onset of a new coronavirus lockdown and curfew. His coordinated actions as he carried an automatic rifle, handgun and knife took him to six discrete sites in a matter of eight minutes where he killed four people and injured others, before he was himself shot dead nine minutes after he began his deadly spree.

Austria's security services have come under close scrutiny, particularly as it emerged on Thursday that Austrian authorities had been warned by their Slovakian counterparts in July of Fejzulai's attempts to acquire ammunition there, for an assault rifle; a "communication" problem accounted for the lack of action on Austria's part, according to Minister Nehammer. A mosque and an Islamic centre that Fejzulai was known to frequent were closed on Friday, with Integration Minister Suzanne Raab stating that institutions which are "hotbeds for the blind hatred and violence we experience(d) on Monday" are slated for closure.

Last month, an assailant who shouted "Allahu akbar!" as he beheaded a woman and attacked and killed two other people with a knife in a church in Nice placed France on high alert. A 21-year-old Tunisian had arrived by ship to Lampedusa, a popular Italian island entry point to Europe for migrants from Africa. He was ordered to return to Tunisia but made his way to Nice instead, where he planned for and carried out his deadly attack.

 

People hold a photo of the history teacher Samuel Paty , who was beheaded last week, during a memorial march in homage to him, Tuesday, Oct.20, 2020 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

 

This followed the beheading murder of French middle-school teacher Samuel Paty who had received threats from some of the parents of his students after he made use of a Charlie Hebdo satirical cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad, in a civics class on French values and freedom of speech. His murderer, a man of Chechen origins living in France, had set out to avenge the prophet after a video produced by a Muslim parent circulated within the Muslim community, identifying the teacher and his school.

Now, in the Netherlands a Rotterdam teacher has been forced into hiding as a result of a classroom discussion of the killing of Samuel Paty. Police arrested a female teen on suspicion of inciting threats against the Dutch teacher. Messages were posted on social media, though it was unclear whether the 18-year-old was a student at the Emmauscollege high school where the class debate occurred. Dutch Prime Minister Rutte spoke of the threats as "absurd" and "intolerable". 

 

Two 18-year-old men and a 17-year-old girl were charged Friday with "criminal terrorist conspiracy" in the murder of French history teacher Samuel Paty, a judicial source told news agency AFP.

 

That class discussion took place as a result of schools in the Netherlands, France and Germany being requested to hold a moment of silence for Paty whose death in October shocked the world community. On Monday, during a classroom discussion at the Emmauscollege, students had taken note of a bulletin board-posted cartoon that had been in place for years. Among the students, some took offence at its presence, a cartoon that won a national prize in 2015, showing a decapitated figure labelled "Charlie Hebdo" sticking out its tongue at a bearded man with a bloody sword.

 

Soon afterward a photo of the cartoon began circulating on social media, and by Tuesday the teacher who led the discussion began receiving threats, compelling him to go into hiding even as police became involved. That same day a school in a Paris suburb was reported by Le Monde as having received threats against another teacher, leading to the school being closed.

The Tewhid mosque in Vienna | Georg Hochmuth/AFP via Getty Images