Man killed intervening in knife attack on French police officersMacron says knife attack is ‘without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism’
A 69-year-old man who intervened when a suspected terrorist attacked police officers with a knife shouting “Allahu Akbar” has died in eastern France.
Two police officers were also seriously injured in the suspected Islamist terrorist act, which took place in the city of Mulhouse during a demonstration in support of the Congo on Saturday afternoon. Three other police officers were lightly wounded.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the knife attack was “without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism”. The suspected attacker, an Algerian male who has been arrested, is on a terror prevention watchlist, according to the anti-terrorism prosecution office (PNAT).
He has been under judicial supervision and house arrest, and was under an expulsion order from France, according to union sources. [1]
Why are people on terrorist watch lists allowed to roam around until they do something? What does ‘house arrest’ mean? Was he just told to stay in his house? How was it enforced? I understand that we can’t really progress to internment and the majority of people on terrorist watch lists do not commit terrorist attacks. Still; the public are entitled to ask why people considered dangerous are just roaming around.
If this man was on an ‘expulsion order’, why had he not already been removed? This one seems less excusable.
In Europe recently there have been a spate of similar attacks. For example; in one attack an Afghan refuge was initially refused asylum but subsequently allowed to stay perhaps because he had arrived as an unaccompanied minor (?). He killed a policeman. In another case a Syrian who “had been slated for deportation but evaded law enforcement” killed 3 people. [2]
One can see why the AFD is becoming more popular in Germany. Our countries (Western Europe) are currently complicit in a massive series of war crimes against Palestinians, who are Muslims, mostly. We have waged savage wars against Afghanistan and been, (illegally), involved in bombing in Syria. Furthermore; the ruling value system of our societies is materialistic hedonism, a value system clearly at odds with a firm adherence to Islam. Refugees from these countries come and are housed in low-grade accommodation and (according to the article, in Germany) barred from working, as they are in the UK. People end up sitting in these places for months, even years on end, because the bureaucracy is running on its own self-serving timeline. They have nothing to do and are in an alien culture. Some may have been traumatised in their home countries. Most have probably had quite traumatic journeys to reach Europe. The only surprise is there are not far more of such episodes. At root, as so often, the problem seems to be liberal hubris which simply thinks that liberalism is so wonderful that everything will be fine. Our society is so great that everyone who comes here will act like they are in heaven. It is blind ideological devotion. There is no pragmatic rationalism, no realism, (and, therefore, no compassion).
In this AFP piece [3] a psychologist comes up with the usual rationalisation; the problem is psychological problems, not immigration. Yes; that is true. But; why, some people might ask, do we need to import these problems? Why make them our problems? That is some kind of self-injuring. Especially if, as per the same psychologist, at the same time we are not providing the facilities to support them? A much more rational policy might be to allow far fewer to stay and support them properly, which, incidentally, is probably how the whole idea of the Refugee Convention and granting asylum was originally conceived.
Notes
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/22/fatal-knife-attack-in-mulhouse-france-also-injures-police-officers
- https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250213-afghan-faces-trial-over-deadly-knife-attack-on-german-policeman
- https://www.barrons.com/news/germany-s-asylum-services-in-the-spotlight-after-knife-attack-49272064