Gabriele Tilmann, senior public prosecutor in Munich, has warned against automatically inferring religious motives when perpetrators of violence shout “Allahu Akbar”. Referring to the attack in Würzburg, she said: “During the attack, the man shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’. But even that does not necessarily point to an Islamist background,” she told the magazine Der Spiegel.
Experts later came to the conclusion that the perpetrator was mentally ill. At that time, a man of Somali origin had stabbed women indiscriminately in a department store in Würzburg. Three of the victims died, five were seriously injured.
In principle, prosecutors should “not stereotype people”. A mentally ill perpetrator could seek support in an extremist ideology. “But extremist thinking can also develop into a delusion,” warned Tilmann, who is also head of the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism.
She made it clear that this did not apply to right-wing extremist perpetrators. “They are more driven by their ideology, mental illness tends to be the exception. Often they are young men without firm social ties.”