2024 Mannheim stabbing

On 31 May 2024 at 11:34am, a man ambushed and wounded several people at a rally hosted by the counter-jihad and anti-Islam group Citizens' Movement Pax Europa (BPE) in the market square in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The victims included the controversial activist Michael Stürzenberger, the main speaker at the rally. Six people were injured, including Stürzenberger and a police officer who was stabbed in the neck and died from his injuries two days later. The attack was stopped when the suspect was shot and injured by another police officer. Investigators suspect that the suspect's motive was Islamist in nature.

Stabbing
The BPE rally was held in Mannheim's market square where Michael Stürzenberger was supposed to give a speech. Since 2013, Stürzenberger had repeatedly compared the Quran to Mein Kampf, drawing criticism for what journalists characterised as "Islamophobic agitation"   while heading the now-defunct minor political party Die Freiheit. At previous rallies held in May of the same year, he had called for "re-education camps" for Muslims modelled after the Xinjiang internment camps.

The incident started at around 11:34am, while Stürzenberger prepared for the event. A third party happened to be livestreaming on YouTube at the time. Footage from the event showed the suspect watching the scene for some time, before suddenly assaulting Stürzenberger when he was on his own. Two nearby BPE supporters were also stabbed when they attempted to intervene.

The attacker went after Stürzenberger again, wrestling him to the ground and stabbing him several times, before being quickly grappled and dragged away by bystanders, including a 34-year-old Iraqi Assyrian refugee. Another person mistakenly punched the Iraqi, resulting in him loosening his grip and the attacker breaking loose, stabbing two of those trying to subdue him, a third BPE member and the Iraqi. During the process, many people kept yelling "(put) the knife away!"

A police officer, identified as 29-year-old,  threw a man in blue to the ground, where he was flat on his back and did not resist. Laur then turned away from the attacker and pinned down the man in blue by kneeling on him, allowing the attacker to run around Laur and stab him in the neck. Another police officer then non-fatally shot the attacker.

For about eight minutes police officers and BPE members provided first aid to victims. Also, the two bystanders were pinned down for some time by officers.

Victims
According to Der Spiegel, the authorities assumed a total of seven people were injured, including the attacker and the police officer. The nationalities and ages of all five injured civilians were shared by police in a press report; three were German citizens, one was a German Kazakh, and one was an Iraqi.

Laur was placed in an induced coma and underwent emergency surgery, but succumbed to his injuries two days after the stabbing. Stürzenberger was stabbed in the face, chest, and thigh and underwent emergency surgery for non-life-threatening injuries. On 1 June 2024, Stürzenberger posted on his Telegram page that the chest stab wound narrowly missed his lungs while the thigh stab wound caused significant blood loss due to striking veins.

Suspect
The main suspect in the stabbing was identified as a 25-year-old Afghan refugee named Sulaiman Ataee. He was a former resident of Herat, and moved to Germany in 2013 as an unaccompanied minor. His application for asylum was denied in 2014, but he could not be deported due to being underage. He lived in Heppenheim at the time of the attack, around 30 km from Mannheim. He reportedly had a valid residence permit, was married since 2019, and had two children. German authorities had not flagged him as an extremist prior to the attack. According to Der Spiegel, investigators believe Islamist motives to be likely. The Baden-Württemberg State Office of Criminal Investigation announced that he was given an arrest warrant for attempted murder, and his apartment was searched.

Following the shooting, Ataee had emergency surgery and was placed in an induced coma at for approximately two weeks. On 17 June, he was transferred into police custody, but as of 4 July, he has not been deemed capable of being interrogated. A federal court has charged Ataee with murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.

Aftermath
The event happened about a week before the 9 June 2024 European Parliament election, held in Germany in connection with some regional and local elections. Two days after the attack, a public statement released by the Mannheim Police Department and State Criminal Police Office of Baden-Württemberg mourned the death of the police officer who gave his life trying to control the situation and stop the violence.

A public vigil was set up in the market square where the stabbing took place. At the same time, Young Alternative members set up an anti-immigration protest at the market square, which was met by counter-protesters that included members of Antifa organizations.

On 3 June, a memorial service was held in Mannheim for the murdered police officer attended by around 8,000 people, featuring speeches from the dean of the Jesuit Church, Karl Jung, and imam of Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque Mustafa Aydinli. In the meantime, a TikTok user known by the pseudonym "Imam Meti" who called for the murder of "all ex-Muslims and every critic of Islam" following the attack, was later identified as the 35-year-old Pristina-born Kosovar Muhamed R., according to a report by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin session of 6 June, when a speaker mentioned (with double meaning in German) "... the terrible death in/of Mannheim ...", Alliance 90/The Greens member Tuba Bozkurt joked "Mannheim is dead?", causing laughter among other members, according to the protocol. Party leader Omid Nouripour and Bozkurt herself apologized.

On 7 June, one week after the attack, the Baden-Württemberg state chapter of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) wanted to organize a memorial rally on the site of the attack. Despite several other events having been held there since the attack, this was denied by the city, which claimed that from 4 until 16 June, only individual mourning was allowed there, as declared on a sign. After an appeal, a higher court upheld the ban. The AfD had to move to a different square, Paradeplatz.

Reactions
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said on X that the footage was "terrible", that such acts of violence were "absolutely unacceptable", and that "[t]he perpetrator must be severely punished". He later stated that action was needed against extremist political violence from those who tried to restrict the democratic space for discussion, regardless of their political or religious orientation.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that it was up to investigators to determine a motive, adding that "if the investigation shows an Islamist motive, that would be another confirmation of the great danger from Islamist acts of violence that we have warned of."

North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul stated that stronger measures for controlling the possession and violent use of knives with greater focus on security policy, stronger punishments, and education about their dangers were required.

Green Party politician Konstantin von Notz and FDP vice-chairman Konstantin Kuhle both condemned anyone who glorified the act of violence, with the latter stating that anyone who publicly celebrated the stabbing should face immediate and severe criminal proceedings, and that Muslim associations needed to make clear statements denouncing the use and glorification of violence to prevent future attacks.