Don’t Mention Islamism: Deflection and Moral Posturing Rule in Germany
17th February 2025
It was the most brutal attack on a trade union event in the history of post-war Germany. Last Thursday, just days before the general election, a man drove a car into a group of striking members of the service workers’ union Verdi in Munich. The attack has so far claimed the lives of a mother and her two-year-old daughter, and injured at least 30 others.
The suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan national who arrived in Germany eight years ago as an unaccompanied minor and was subsequently granted residence status. According to police reports, he had previously shared Islamist content on social media. Upon his arrest, he shouted “Allahu akbar”, leading authorities to classify the incident as “most likely” Islamist-motivated.
Anger is surely the right response to such a barbaric attack on workers and their families who were exercising their democratic right to campaign for better working conditions. Yet, almost immediately after the incident made headlines, the Verdi leadership issued a statement condemning any “misplaced passion” that might arise from the act: “We stand for solidarity and togetherness. In its darkest hour, ver.di defends itself against the attack on ver.di colleagues during a token strike in Munich being used for division, hatred and incitement,” the statement said. A statement by Frank Werneke, the ver.di leader, which carefully avoided any mention of the word ‘Islamism’, was similarly muddled.