On Friday July 22 2016 the German city of Munich witnessed its first major mass shooting after the infamous massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics when 11 Israeli Olympic team members and a German police officer were killed by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.
At 5:52 pm local time (11:52 am EST) Ali David Sonboly a 18-year old German male of an Iranian descent opened fire at a McDonalds west of the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum (OEZ) shopping mall in the Moosach district of the city the third largest in Germany.
Ten people were killed including three Turks three Kosovars and the perpetrator (who apparently ended his own life by gun-inflicted wounds) and 36 others were injured.
From the facts gathered by the police initial investigations mass media reports and private sources -- including the attached VIDEO (with translation attached) -- it results until proven otherwise a series of atypical elements that would distinguish this attack also committed by an alleged Muslim from other recent attacks committed by Islamic terrorists.
Thus: the attacker acted alone; he had no previous criminal record; he was possibly mentally disturbed; he was an Iranian national so probably a Shia not a Sunni ISIS militant; he lived in a Turkish neighborhood and apparently he did not like the Turks (who are Sunni).
Also the attack took place five years after the July 22 2011 Norway attacks when a 32-year old far-right terrorist Anders Breivik killed 77 leftist activists and injured 319 others at a retreat outside Oslo. At least one witness reported that the Munich attacker shouted Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest!" in Arabic) before the attack.
The first conclusion indicates that this event might embody the troubled Sunni-Shia relations which in the last decades have been marked by sectarian violence regional conflicts inter-state wars civil wars and genocide in the Middle Eastern states of Bahrain Saudi Arabia Iraq Iran Syria Yemen and Pakistan.
The second conclusion suggests that these horrible conflicts between the two major denominations of Islam have been transferred and imported now in the heart of Europe. Which makes the 2016 Munich shooting the beginning of a new trend in Islamic terrorism.
This might represent a turning point of a reality that risks to become a nightmare for Europe and a warning for America. For the time being.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in CONNOR POST.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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On Friday July 22 2016 the German city of Munich witnessed its first major mass shooting after the infamous massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics when 11 Israeli Olympic team members and a German police officer were killed by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.
At 5:52 pm local time (11:52 am EST) Ali David Sonboly a 18-year old German male of an Iranian descent opened fire at a McDonalds west of the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum (OEZ) shopping mall in the Moosach district of the city the third largest in Germany.
Ten people were killed including three Turks three Kosovars and the perpetrator (who apparently ended his own life by gun-inflicted wounds) and 36 others were injured.
From the facts gathered by the police initial investigations mass media reports and private sources -- including the attached VIDEO (with translation attached) -- it results until proven otherwise a series of atypical elements that would distinguish this attack also committed by an alleged Muslim from other recent attacks committed by Islamic terrorists.
Thus: the attacker acted alone; he had no previous criminal record; he was possibly mentally disturbed; he was an Iranian national so probably a Shia not a Sunni ISIS militant; he lived in a Turkish neighborhood and apparently he did not like the Turks (who are Sunni).
Also the attack took place five years after the July 22 2011 Norway attacks when a 32-year old far-right terrorist Anders Breivik killed 77 leftist activists and injured 319 others at a retreat outside Oslo. At least one witness reported that the Munich attacker shouted Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest!" in Arabic) before the attack.
The first conclusion indicates that this event might embody the troubled Sunni-Shia relations which in the last decades have been marked by sectarian violence regional conflicts inter-state wars civil wars and genocide in the Middle Eastern states of Bahrain Saudi Arabia Iraq Iran Syria Yemen and Pakistan.
The second conclusion suggests that these horrible conflicts between the two major denominations of Islam have been transferred and imported now in the heart of Europe. Which makes the 2016 Munich shooting the beginning of a new trend in Islamic terrorism.
This might represent a turning point of a reality that risks to become a nightmare for Europe and a warning for America. For the time being.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in CONNOR POST.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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