A prominent far-right activist who was leading an event to “educate about political Islam” was among six people wounded in a knife attack in Mannheim, Germany, on Friday.
Michael Stuerzenberger sustained stab wounds to the face and leg, according to his Pax Europa group.
A police officer who attempted to intervene was stabbed several times in the head and four other members of the group were injured before another officer shot and subdued the suspect, authorities said.
“All of the injured were subsequently taken to various hospitals, where some of them had to undergo emergency surgery,” the Karlsruhe Public Prosecutor’s Office and local authorities said in a joint statement Friday evening.
They said the identity of the attacker was unknown. They did not release any information about motive.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wrote on X, “If the investigation reveals an Islamist motive, then that would be further confirmation of the great danger posed by Islamist acts of violence that we have warned about.”
Stuerzenberger has been known to authorities. The Bavarian State intelligence services have mentioned him in successive annual reports.
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A former member of the conservative Christian Social Union party, he has been part of several far-right anti-Islam organizations. He was previously convicted of insulting a police officer and of incitement and denigration of religious teachings. He was also previously attacked — punched in the face at a 2022 event in the western city of Bonn.
Islamophobia in Europe, which peaked at the height of the migration crisis almost a decade ago, has picked up again amid the Israel-Gaza war, and has included Quran burnings in Sweden and the Netherlands.
Far-right parties across Europe have been hoping that anti-Islam and anti-migrant sentiment would help them win seats in next week’s European Parliament elections.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday that the images from Mannheim were “terrible.”
“Violence is absolutely unacceptable in our democracy,” he wrote on X. “The perpetrator must be severely punished.”