German officials failed to deport Syrian migrant who allegedly butchered Germans at Christian concert

A 26-year-old Syrian asylum seeker is in custody after allegedly admitting to butchering three people — two men aged 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman — and leaving another six grievously wounded Friday at a Christian music festival in Solingen, Germany.

Leftist politicians, poised to lose ground to the right-leaning Alternative for Germany party in next month's state elections, have expressed concern that this latest avoidable blood-letting may embolden critics of the country's immigration and asylum policies.

According to the German publication Spiegel, a witness heard the suspect, Issa Al Hasan, shout "Allahu Akbar" while randomly stabbing bystanders. Hasan allegedly attempted to kill as many Christians and other Germans he regarded as "non-believers" as possible before escaping, masked in his victims' blood.

Hasan turned himself into a police patrol late Saturday night, still wearing bloody clothes, and reportedly admitted to having committed the crime.

Police arrested two other individuals, including a 36-year-old man in a residence for asylum seekers. It is unclear what connection the other arrestees had to Hasan or his plan.

The terrorist organization ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack "on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany," reported the Telegraph.

The terrorist organization circulated a video on its propaganda channels showing the alleged attacker brandishing a knife and explaining his motives. Apparently, the terrorist wanted to avenge the supposed killing of Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and Bosnia, as well as to exact retribution for the "people of Palestine," reported Spiegel.

The terrorist noted further in the video that he hails from Deir al-Sor in eastern Syria, where ISIS still has a foothold.

'It should now be clear: it is not the knives that are the problem, but the people who carry them around.'

The last time ISIS claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack in Germany was in December 2016. An Islamic terrorist from Tunisia who unsuccessfully applied for asylum intentionally drove a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. A 13th victim later died of his injuries.

The attacker in the 2016 Christmas attack pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi whose reign as caliph of the Islamic State was brought to an end in 2019 during a U.S. military raid green-lit by President Donald Trump.

Hasan, the apparent attacker in the Friday stabbings, reportedly entered Germany in December 2022 and applied for asylum. He was, however, ineligible under the EU's Dublin Regulation, which in this case would have made Bulgaria responsible for him.

Although Germany and Bulgaria agreed on the Syrian's deportation, Hasan managed to dodge the authorities and go into hiding.

Spiegel indicated that an arrest warrant was not ultimately issued for Hasan, in part because there were not enough detention facilities for prospective deportees. Since Hasan was not deported by the transfer deadline in August 2023, he officially became Germany's problem.

Hasan subsequently secured the special protection Syrians oftentimes receive in Germany and was dispatched to Solingen in September 2023.

As of July, German authorities reportedly made at least 43,000 transfer requests to other EU countries, but had only followed through on 3,500 deportations.

The anti-Christian terror attack comes just months after an Afghan migrant, Sulaiman Ataee, went on a German stabbing spree at an anti-jihad rally in Mannheim's supposed knife-free zone. After stabbing multiple people, Ataee fatally slit a police officer's throat. The terrorist was subsequently shot dead by another cop.

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union and the opposition in the Bundestag, noted on Sunday:

The attack is one of a whole series of knife attacks that have claimed the lives of many people in Germany in recent months. The coalition has been discussing — and arguing — for several weeks about tightening the gun laws and banning knives. After the terrorist attack in Solingen, it should now be clear: it is not the knives that are the problem, but the people who carry them around. In the majority of cases, these are refugees, and in the majority of the attacks, there are Islamist motives behind them.

Merz called on German chancellor Olaf Scholz of the leftist Social Democratic Party of Germany to "join us in making decisions quickly and without further delay that are consistently aimed at preventing further terrorist attacks like the one last Friday in our country. People can be deported to Syria and Afghanistan, but we will not accept any more refugees from these countries."

Scholz subsequently noted on X, "Islamists endanger the peaceful coexistence of Christians, Jews and Muslims. We will take action against them with all severity and will not stop persecuting them."

Despite Scholz's strong rhetoric online, his party appears reluctant to take meaningful action.

'So of course, we are all very afraid that the right wing is getting more and more power.'

The German publication Junge Freiheit reported that Scholz's general secretary Kevin Kühnert suggested Merz's proposal for a moratorium on asylum seeker admissions from Syria and Afghanistan is not legally possible.

Kühnert apparently claimed that in the wake of such a terrorist attack, Germany cannot "now slam the door in the faces of people who are themselves fleeing from Islamists."

Nancy Faeser, another leftist serving in Scholz's cabinet as Germany's federal minister of the interior, has expressed concerns that the Islamic terror attack may cause domestic division.

Solingen city councilor Simone Lammert told Euronews, "We just heard that the far right Youth Party is talking about coming together today here. So of course, we are all very afraid that the right wing is getting more and more power. And that's definitely not the way of course, we have to ask some hard questions, but, you know, racism is never the answer."

While the current German political establishment appears unwilling to address its problem with violent migrant crime, it is more than happy to hound immigration critics.

Blaze News previously reported that Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a member of the right-leaning Alternative for Germany, was convicted in May of a hate crime for sharing statistics about the disproportionate number of gang rapes committed by immigrants, specifically Afghan nationals, and for questioning whether multiculturalism means accommodating rape culture.

In the wake of the AfD's strong electoral showing in June, a Bavarian court ruled that the country's domestic intelligence agency could surveil a regional association of the party as a suspected extremist group.

The 22nd Chamber of the Düsseldorf Administrative Court — not far from Solingen — revealed last month that membership in the AfD precludes German citizens from owning firearms.

AfD Bundestag lawmaker Nicole Höchst tweeted Saturday, "In Germany, thousands of people fall victim to knife attacks every year. Anyone who continues to vote for the CDU, CSU, Greens, SPD, FDP, Left, BSW is choosing to carry on as before. Change can only happen with us."

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