Europe continues to reel from violence that has swept over the continent in recent weeks. France is still mourning the loss of more than 80 people killed while celebrating Bastille Day earlier this month. They were killed when a man drove a truck through a crowded promenade in Nice as the seaside resort in the French Rivera celebrated the national holiday.
France’s neighbor, Germany, saw four incidents of violence in less than a week between July 18 and 24. A German teenager in Munich went on a killing spree at a shopping mall, killing nine. A refugee from Afghanistan attacked four passengers on a train in Wurzburg, a suicide bomber tried to enter a concert with a backpack filled with explosives in Ansbach, injuring 15. And in Reutlingen a Syrian asylum seeker killed a pregnant woman with an axe.
“They're not all terrorist-related, but because these keep happening one on top of the other, that seems to be the conclusion people automatically jump to,” University of Oklahoma College of International Studies assistant dean Rebecca Cruise told KGOU’s World Views. “There was a skirmish at the Frankfurt airport last weekend as well. A British man got in a fight with four police officers and really had nothing to do with terrorism or anything, but that got on social media as also being a terrorist event.”
Three of the four attackers were of Middle Eastern descent, with the suicide bomber in Ansbach pledging allegiance to ISIS. Cruise says that has the European migrant crisis and the 2 million refugees Germany has taken in on everyone’s mind. Chancellor Angela Merkel faces criticism and dissent in Germany’s Bundestag governing body, and residents in the southern state of Bavaria, where many of these attacks took place, are calling for a tougher policy toward refugees.
Terrorism isn’t a new phenomenon in Germany – probably the most famous example came in 1972 during the Summer Olympics in Munich. A Palestinian terrorist group took 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage in the Olympic village. They were killed two days later during an ambush and escape attempt.
“Beyond that, there have been some discussions about new laws, and one of the ones that's on the table is that Germany has very tight privacy laws. So their police and intelligence are somewhat constricted,” Cruise said. “They can't listen in on conversations, so there is some discussion about trying to liberalize those to an extent so that they can get a little intelligence and hopefully try to prevent some of this. Now that's very controversial given Germany's history in particular, but that has been something that has been thrown out there.”
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