2024-09-11 06:01:50
In Solingen, three people were killed in a knife attack, and in Munich, a man shot at the Israeli consulate general. What can you do to combat the fear of becoming a victim of an attack yourself?
Terrorism researcher Peter Neumann advises dealing with the danger of attacks in Germany as rationally as possible. “You must not allow yourself to be terrorized, otherwise the terrorists will win,” he said on ARD’s “Tagesthemen”. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize societies and people.
The risk of dying in a terrorist attack is still very low. “That means there are many threats in everyday life that are far more dangerous,” said Neumann, who teaches at King’s College London. “Of course this horror and terror is something very bad, but you have to try to deal with it rationally.”
On Thursday, an 18-year-old Austrian shot at the Israeli Consulate General in Munich before being killed by police. Investigators are following up on evidence of an Islamist or anti-Semitic motive. In the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, a suspected Islamist attacked a police station. The man, armed with a machete and a knife, was locked in a security gate and overpowered by special forces. In a suspected Islamist terrorist attack in Solingen on August 23, a man killed three people with a knife and injured eight others at a town festival. The suspected perpetrator is in custody.
Neumann said that the vast majority of attacks are prevented. “Even with these individual perpetrators, who often radicalize themselves, it is not the case that they become terrorists overnight,” he said. They are often preceded by weeks or months of radicalization, during which it is possible to intercept “signals.” “We need to get better at intercepting these signals, sensitizing the environment and concentrating on the risk groups where the terrorists actually come from.” Although attacks cannot be completely prevented, the rate of attacks prevented can be increased.