It is now 4:00 p.m. on December 20, 2016—almost exactly 20 hours after the horrific act in which the perpetrator (or perpetrators) drove a truck into the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, killing at least 12 people and injuring 48 others, many of them seriously. Whatever the exact motives behind this act may have been, the deed itself is abhorrent and despicable. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.
And yet, if this does turn out to be a terrorist attack—as it sadly appears—then we must all take a step back and resist the all-too-human reaction of anger and hate. Terrorism does not primarily aim at the act itself; it aims at the reaction it provokes. The purpose of this attack was not only to kill 12 innocent people, but to sow hatred, rage, and fear in the population. To destabilize political systems. To disrupt our way of life. Do not let terror win. React calmly. Stand together.
The guilty party is not “the refugees.”
The guilty party is not “Merkel.”
The guilty party is the driver.
Angela Merkel is not responsible for these deaths. The people who welcomed refugees into this country are not responsible. Refugees as a whole are not responsible. No! The blame lies with terrorist organizations and with individual cruel perpetrators. Anyone who claims otherwise is simply seeking an easy answer to a complex problem. Generalizations and shifting blame help no one—least of all in this moment, when neither the perpetrator nor the background of the act is even fully known.
What disgusts me most are those who, only hours after such an atrocity, rush to exploit it politically without sparing a thought for the victims or waiting for facts to emerge. They are despicable, no less than the terrorists themselves, because they too exploit the situation to spread fear and hatred.
The urge to assign blame and demand immediate reactions just hours after such an event makes me sick. Shouldn’t we first investigate, learn, and understand what happened—before drawing conclusions? And yet, even now, “the people” (or at least the 20% who think they speak for them) are tearing themselves apart with hate and incitement, doing exactly what both so-called “alternatives” and the terrorists want.
What frightens me far more than the attack itself are the comment sections and the reactions of certain political groups and figures. There, one sees nothing but prejudice, hate, and simplistic generalizations. The AfD thrives on this wave of resentment—just as the NSDAP once did, with the same playbook. That is why it is the duty of all who believe in a free, open, and compassionate world to stand up and make their voices heard.
