Berlin and Nashville

 This article first appeared in New English Review.

Covenant Presbyterian School, Nashville

Evangelische Schule, Berlin

In the wake of the horrific attack in March on a Nashville Christian school in which three children and three adults were slaughtered by a woman named Audrey Hale, who identified as a transgender, the Nashville police have decided they will not release the contents of Hale’s so-called manifesto to the public. There is no legal reason not to do so. Hale is dead thus, there is no evidentiary or fair trial issue here. It appears the contents of the manifesto are so bad that authorities fear it might inspire others to commit similar acts. If that is the case, at least, they could explain to the public what the motivation was for Hale to attack that particular school. Was this a hate crime against Christians? Did Hale’s identity as a transgender play any role?

This reminds me of what we have been seeing play out in Europe in the past decade or so with respect to Islamic terrorism. Police, politicians, and media are loathe to fully identify individuals who suddenly go on a rampage attacking people, killing them or raping them. Riots are routinely blamed on “youths” or in Germany, as people with a “southern appearance”.  For all we know, that could mean pot-bellied Bavarians in lederhosen and funny green hats. In almost every case, single attackers are dismissed as being mentally ill. Full names of defendants are not published until they are actually convicted. The biggest open secret in Europe (Western Europe at least) is that millions of young, single Muslim migrants and fake asylum-seekers are walking around in-between running amok.

Just the latest example took place in Berlin on May 3, where a 38-year-old man identified only as Berhan S., a man with a lengthy police record, walked onto the playground of the Evangelical School in Neukoelln (a district in Berlin) and stabbed two schoolgirls for no reason. Both girls, ages 7 and 8, are still hospitalized as I write this, one fighting for her life. Meanwhile, Berhan S. Is sitting in a psychiatric hospital being evaluated (under guard, of course). The media is emphasizing that Berhan S. has a history of not only arrests, but mental illness as well. They also stress that he was born in Berlin and is a German citizen. But it is clear that Berhan S. comes from an immigrant background, most likely Turkish. One daring newspaper, Tagesspiegel, has actually published his photo (with a black line running across his eyes for some reason and describes him and his family as “strictly religious”). It may be too soon to jump to conclusions, but if Berhan S. is a Muslim, as I strongly suspect he is, then I would bet the farm that his only logical motive for choosing a Christian school was to perform an act of jihad. Let us not forget that in recent years, Christian churches, schools, and other institutions have suffered a rash of Islamic attacks, especially in Germany and France-to say nothing of the Jewish communities.

Much like the Nashville incident, the Berlin case is just the latest example of how the police and media are not serving the interest of public safety. This is not to suggest that all Muslims are walking time bombs or terrorists per se, but in Europe, the threat to public safety is all too clear. I respect the fact that authorities do not want to stoke hate against innocent Muslims, but with rare exceptions, very few acts of violence directed at Muslims have occurred in the Western world. The most notable example was the horrific attack on two mosques in New Zealand in 2020 by a lone killer who took 51 innocent lives. There was also the 2011 case of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who slaughtered over 70 people (not Muslims) to display his anger over Muslim migration into Norway. All of that is to be condemned by decent people. The fact remains, however, that Western Europe is no longer the safe environment we thought it was thanks to the millions of young males from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, the Maghreb (North Africa), and other predominantly Muslim countries. Most of these unaccompanied males should never have been admitted in the first place.

My point is that the public in Germany, especially the Christian and Jewish communities, is entitled to know the motives of Berhan S. Was he, in fact, carrying out a religiously-inspired hate crime against the Christian community in targeting two little girls in a Christian school? 

Similarly, the public in the US is entitled to know if Audrey Hale was deliberately targeting a Christian institution as revenge for any perceived bias or damage to the transgender community. Again, this is not to suggest that transgenders in general are plotting to turn to terrorism to achieve their ends, but to the extent that this community may be radicalizing and that further attacks may be possible, the public is entitled to know the dangers and risks. But if people in places like Nashville and Berlin are denied the facts behind these horrific attacks, then it is left to us to assume the worst.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Update: The German blog, Allah's willing executioners is describing Berhan S. as Turkish. It appears there are conflicting reports as to whether he was born in Turkey or Germany.