Following the news that the Berlin attacker was a known religious extremist, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said law enforcement should do everything in its power to “limit the freedom of movement of such potential offenders as much as possible.”
Merz told reporters that he had already asked Germany’s Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, to look into the issue.
Police named 21-year-old Abdul B. as the driver of the van that rammed into revelers during a Berlin Pride celebration this Saturday. The man was born in Berlin and — despite his Lebanese roots — only had German citizenship.
Commenting on the case, Merz said that stripping someone of citizenship was not possible if they only had one, like in this case. However, he said that removing the German citizenship of dual nationals was possible even without changing Germany’s Basic Law, which effectively operates as the country constitution.
He also said that many people who had been ordered to leave Germany should be indeed pushed into leaving as soon as possible, as the group includes many potentially dangerous individuals.
Germany’s Central Council of Muslims condemns the Berlin attack
The umbrella association of Muslim communities in Germany said there was no justification for violence against innocent people after an apparent Islamist attack on the Berlin Pride march on Saturday.
“No one should be subjected to violence on the grounds of their sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, origin or other personal characteristics,” the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) said in a statement.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and all those who had to witness this terrible act.”
The group also urged a “clear stance against all forms of hatred,” warning of extremist ideologies that are “dividing our society and seeking to pit people against one another.”
The suspected attacker, Abdul B., is a German national of Lebanese descent. Despite being born into a Shiite family, he sought to join the Sunni “Islamic State” militia in Syria and spent three months in a Lebanese jail before returning to Germany.
The suspect’s father told the German Spiegel magazine that the family was “not extremely religious.”
Berlin Pride organizers warn against hatred of Muslims
Germany’s CSD Association, the organizers of the Berlin Pride event that was cut short by a terror attack on Saturday, pledged not to be suppressed by violence.
The organization said that both “right-wing and religious ideologies aim to oppress queer people.”
“Behind such violence lies an attempt to divide our society and pit people against one another,” they said in a statement. “We will not allow that to happen.”
