In the heart of Paris, a man attacked three women with a knife “in the name of Allah.” Yet, once again, the psychiatric diagnosis prevailed, and the case was not referred to the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office. Across the French border, an Islamist terrorist attacked the Berlin Pride parade, but there, too, it seems almost impossible for the Germans to accurately profile the attacker. Is deliberate blindness the disease of our time?
On Monday, July 27th, 2026, in Paris’s 17th arrondissement, three young women, aged 19, 24, and 36, one of them pregnant, were attacked with a knife in the middle of the street late in the morning. Two victims were seriously injured, but, according to authorities, their lives are not in danger.
The alleged perpetrator, a 31-year-old man, was armed with two kitchen knives. He was spotted and followed by an off-duty police officer from the Paris Police Prefecture, then subdued with the help of responding officers and several bystanders before being arrested.
Several witnesses and videos shared on social media show the suspect stating, among other things: “It was Allah who ordered me to do this.” According to other accounts reported by the press, he also reportedly stated: “Allah sent me to kill women.”
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office was immediately notified and is monitoring the case but has not taken over the investigation at this stage. An investigation has been opened for aggravated attempted murder, while authorities are working to determine whether the acts constitute a terrorist offense or were motivated by other factors.
Police Prefect Laurent Nuñez stated that the suspect was speaking incoherently and had reportedly been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment on several previous occasions. The psychiatric interpretation is currently favoured by the authorities, in line with a recurring pattern in cases of this type: psychological motivation is emphasized, which allows the ideological background of the attack to be downplayed when the suspect is Muslim.
At this time, several points remain to be established. Were the victims chosen at random or because they were women? What were the attacker’s potential ties to Islamist circles? Depending on the findings of the investigation, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office will decide whether or not to proceed with the investigation on the basis of a terrorism charge.
The tendency to frame attacks linked to Islam as psychiatric cases seems to be a standard procedure for police and judicial authorities. It is worth noting that when investigations are conducted into attacks carried out by individuals with profiles associated with the ‘far right,’ psychological instability is never highlighted as a primary factor in the media. Who remembers Anders Breivik as a paranoid schizophrenic? It is understandable that it may be delicate to classify acts that combine explicit references to Islam, extreme violence, and psychiatric disorders, but the presumption of psychiatric causes occurs too frequently to go unquestioned.
The French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office follows a fairly consistent approach. In their view, the fact that a perpetrator shouts “Allahu Akbar,” claims to be acting “in the name of Allah,” or cites a religious motive is not sufficient on its own to characterize the act as terrorism. Prosecutors look for objective evidence demonstrating genuine ideological commitment: viewing jihadist propaganda, allegiance to an organization, preparation for the attack, documented radicalization, a symbolic choice of target, or an intent to sow terror beyond the immediate victims. In the absence of such evidence, the case is generally handled by the ordinary criminal prosecutor’s office, even if the perpetrator’s statements have Islamist overtones.
The Alban Gervaise case remains, in this regard, one of the most significant precedents.
On May 10, 2022, the 40-year-old military doctor was stabbed to death outside the Catholic school where he had come to pick up his three children in Marseille. His attacker chased him out of his vehicle, struck him repeatedly, and, once subdued, shouted, among other things, “Let me finish him off, in the name of God,” and referred to his victim as “the devil.” The circumstances—a family man, a Catholic school, explicit religious references—immediately raised questions about a possible Islamist attack.
However, the judges concluded that the perpetrator was suffering from an acute delusional episode, likely linked to early-stage schizophrenia, which had resulted in a loss of discernment at the time of the incident. In 2025, he was therefore declared not criminally responsible and involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. In 2026, the decision to grant him a more flexible treatment regimen, including periods at home, caused a strong public outcry, particularly among the victim’s family.
In an earlier case, in 2017, the murder of Sarah Halimi by Kobili Traoré—who committed the murder after reciting suras from the Quran and shouting “Allah Akbar”—was recognized as having been committed while he was suffering from an acute delusional episode, exacerbated by heavy cannabis use. Although the judges accepted the antisemitic motive, the perpetrator was found not criminally responsible.
The Paris attack presents several interesting features: a perpetrator who claims to be acting on Allah’s orders, victims apparently chosen at random, and reports of a history of psychiatric illness. It is to be hoped that the assailant will not, once again, be able to escape justice.
The existence of psychiatric disorders does not automatically preclude a terrorist classification. But it does provide a convenient legal loophole. Above all, there does not seem to be any middle ground between a terrorist act and severe psychiatric disorders leading to criminal irresponsibility. Yet the prevalence of psychologically unstable individuals within a population of immigrant origin with an Islamic background goes beyond mere anecdotal evidence, yet the authorities are reluctant to draw political or practical conclusions from it.
The presumption of psychiatric issues whenever a lone attacker of Muslim background carries out a violent act is merely one element in a broader institutional blindness to the risk posed to Western societies by the massive influx of immigrants from Muslim societies. With the media and politicians obsessed with welcoming and being open to others, the terrorist threat is underestimated, and the underlying violence within these immigrant populations is consistently swept under the rug as a non-issue. Ten years ago, on Sunday, July 26th, 2016, Father Jacques Hamel had his throat slit while celebrating Mass in the small town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. Today, we remember his death—but public television struggles to acknowledge that he was a victim of Islamic terrorism. Self-imposed blindness is hard to cure.