Fortunately for me, the assailant missed his target.
Unfortunately for my friend, the attacker actually slashed the handle of her handbag, causing it to drop to the ground with a thud. Yet my friend, sensing danger, immediately rushed to grab her belongings, while the culprit fled into the bustling Makati crowd, scot-free.
Everything happened so quickly that I was reeling by the time the incident was over. Thanks be to God, neither my friend nor I was injured in any way, save for a few startled cries.
Years later, this scene, while etched in a corner of my memory, resurfaced when I read about the disturbing number of knife attacks throughout Western Europe, including those in Austria, Germany, and France. While not all instances of knife violence were committed by immigrants, a significant number of them were, and it would be delusional to ignore these facts.
“The security situation in Germany is disastrous. Knives, axes or firearms—every day, my colleagues have to deal with life-threatening situations, and politicians have nothing better to do than throw around empty slogans.” -Manuel Ostermann of the Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft police union
For one, on December 2 2023, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, a radicalized French citizen of Iranian origin who had long been under French counter-terrorist surveillance, murdered a German tourist and wounded two others with a knife and hammer near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, while declaring “Allah akbar!”
Strikingly, Rajabpour-Miyandoab had previously been incarcerated before. When he was released from jail in 2020, Rajabpour-Miyandoab had social media exchanges with Abdoullakh Anzorov, the future killer who notoriously killed and decapitated French teacher Samuel Paty for commenting on cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Likewise, the similar stabbing and murder of French teacher Dominique Bernard in Arras in October 2023 by an Chechen terrorist was only the tip of the iceberg, reinforcing the stark reality of violent knife attacks in France.
In neighboring Germany, a new website called Messerinzidenz (Knife Incidence) has begun to unravel the alarming statistics of knife-related crime in the country. This website showcases an interactive map of Germany documenting new cases of knife attacks, along with their geographical locations. The website outlined its purpose as follows:
“This project is based on a comprehensive collection and aggregation of police press releases from across Germany relating to incidents involving knives or other stabbing weapons.The aim is to provide a transparent picture of the extent and distribution of these crimes across the country in real time. By visualizing the data on an interactive map, citizens, researchers and policy makers can gain a better understanding of the occurrence and frequency of knife crimes in different regions. The knife incidents are intended to help raise awareness while also sparking informed discussions about safety in Germany.”
Recently, in August 2024, a man stabbed several attendees at a “Festival of Diversity” (“Festival der Vielfalt”) in Germany’s Solingen. Following the attack, the Düsseldorf police published a statement saying:
“According to current information, three people were killed and eight injured, five of them seriously, in the attack.”
Nonetheless, the police were quick to downplay the background of the attacker, urging the public not to speculate.
“Speculation about the crime in Solingen is forbidden. I appeal to everyone, especially to users of social media, to refrain from spreading rumors,” declared the North Rhine-Westphalia head of the police union, Michael Mertens. “I am concerned that speculation is currently being spread via social networks.”
In August 2024, a man stabbed several attendees at a “Festival of Diversity” (“Festival der Vielfalt”) in Germany’s Solingen. Some witnesses testified that the attacker “looked like an Arab.”
Some witnesses testified that the attacker “looked like an Arab,” as per news outlet Bild.
Also, news outlet Nius detailed how drugged and intoxicated Tunisian men attacked a young Algerian on a train in Hamburg on June 14, while a 17-year-old Afghan youth stabbed a 24-year-old man in Ingolstadt, gravely wounding him.
In May, Sulaiman Ataee, a failed asylum seeker who had been living in Germany illegally for nine years, assaulted an anti-Islamism rally in Germany’s Mannheim, attacking even anti-Islamism activist Michael Stürzenberger. One policeman sadly succumbed to his stab injuries.
In statements to Bild, Manuel Ostermann of the Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft police union said:
“The security situation in Germany is disastrous. Knives, axes or firearms—every day, my colleagues have to deal with life-threatening situations, and politicians have nothing better to do than throw around empty slogans.”
Even leftist Interior Minister Nancy Faeser could not deny the grim consequences of the Mannheim stabbings and had to resort to platitudes to reassure the German public. Various politicians also called for knife bans in public spaces.
In Vienna, former power center of the Catholic Habsburg Empire, a 15-year old Syrian national stabbed a 19-year old man in May last year, making the incident the fourth knife attack in only two days. Remarking on the incident, Viennese Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) leader Dominik Nepp observed that “Vienna’s cycle of violence is apparently spinning faster and faster.”
Sadly, despite Europe’s deteriorating security situation, many of the continent’s law enforcement officers are unable to do their jobs to ensure Europeans are safe from migrant-linked violence. After all, these law enforcement personnel have to answer to their “woke” bosses in the Brussels elite who are so obsessed with “racism” and political correctness. As long as the current situation remains unchanged, politicians’ assurances to step up public security would only be “all smoke and no fire”.
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