Munich Shooter Was “Religiously Radicalised”

'Austrian authorities found Islamist propaganda on the gunman’s phone back in 2023, but the public prosecutor’s office dropped the case against him.'

From The European Conservative

By Zoltán Kottász

Austrian authorities found Islamist propaganda on the gunman’s phone back in 2023, but the public prosecutor’s office dropped the case against him.

The 18-year-old Austrian man who fired shots near the Israeli consulate in Munich on Thursday, September 5th, was suspected of having become “religiously radicalised” and had been investigated over terrorist links, according to Austrian police.

The suspect had been known to authorities since February 2023 after injuring fellow students. The police confiscated his mobile phone and found a video game on it in which gamers can recreate Islamic State-styled terrorist attacks.

He was reported to the police by his friends on suspicion of having become strongly religiously radicalised, being a member of a terrorist organisation, and disseminating Islamic State propaganda. Though Austrian authorities did find Islamist propaganda on his mobile phone, the public prosecutor’s office dropped the case against him in April 2023.

However, he was forbidden from buying and owning a gun for five years—a ban that was useless, as the perpetrator was able to buy a rifle one day before his shooting spree.

As we reported yesterday, the man was identified as Emrah I., an Austrian national with Bosnian roots. He lived near the Austrian city of Salzburg, in the small town of Neumarkt am Wallersee, a two-hour drive from Munich.

The man drove to Munich on Thursday morning, got out of his car in the centre of the city, in front of a Nazi history museum and near the Israeli consulate, and shot at a police officer with a World War II rifle. After the security forces returned fire, the suspect fled behind the building. There, he exchanged fire again with several police officers who arrived on the scene to provide backup. According to eyewitnesses, thirty to forty shots were fired in total. Emrah I. was shot dead.

According to Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, the man wanted to attack the Israeli consulate. Authorities are treating the case as a terror attack.

Austria and other parts of Western Europe have been on high alert over possible Islamic attacks since the Palestinian terror organisation Hamas launched a terror attack against Israel on October 7th last year. Austrian intelligence thwarted a terror attack exactly a month ago, with Islamist teenagers planning a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert.

The number of antisemitic incidents has dramatically increased.

It remains unclear whether the perpetrator knowingly scheduled the attack for September 5th, the anniversary of the Munich massacre of 1972, when members of the Palestinian terrorist organisation Black September killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and took nine others hostage. The hostages were later killed in a failed rescue attempt.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “anti-Semitism and Islamism have no place here.”

According to Austrian reports, news of the thwarted attack in Munich shocked the community of Neumarkt am Wallersee because the family was said to be “friendly and well integrated” into society. The mother has been running a store in the town for many years, her son sometimes helped her, and the mother was proud of her sons. There were no signs of trouble brewing.