Suicide by Pakistani in Berlin Worries Muslim Organisations

On March 20th, a 28-year-old Pakistani studying textile engineering in Mönchengladbach, Germany, travelled to Berlin armed with a knife and went straight to the premises of the daily "Die Welt", intending to kill the newspaper's editor-in-chief for reprinting the Mohammed cartoons.

He didn't make it past the security officials at the entrance and was sent to a prison in Berlin. There, he is alleged to have hanged himself last week with a noose made from his clothes.

Representatives of Muslim organisations in Germany said they were shocked when they learned about the Pakistani's plot. The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims, Ayyub Axel Köhler, for example, said that such incidents could destroy the hard work done by the Muslim organisations towards a genuine and peaceful dialogue with the rest of the German population.

Non-violent protest

They emphasise that throughout the controversy about the Mohammed cartoons in European newspapers Muslims in Germany had reacted in a very responsible way by voicing their feelings and protest in a civilised and non-violent way.

Burhan Kesici, spokesman for Berlin's Islamic Federation, said he hoped that German journalists would continue to show a sense of responsibility in dealing with the story of the Pakistani man:

"I assume that the incident will not have a big effect on the relationship between native Germans and Muslims here," Kesici says. "The story is getting a bit old in the tooth anyway. The planned attack by the Pakistani on the editor-in-chief was basically given no coverage at all and only became known in connection with last week's suicide. We take it that Germans and journalists in particular are aware of the fact that we're dealing with a singular case here. Everyone knows that the big Muslim organisations in Germany sharply condemn any such attacks. And when the debate about the Mohammed cartoons came up, we were able to show that Muslims here can express their feelings and views in a peaceful and civilised way. And this is what we'll do in future too."

No undue sensational coverage

Kesici assumes that it was not only the media who prevented the incident from becoming a huge story, so that it might have led to public opinion turning against Muslims living in Germany.

"It may well be that German intelligence and the authorities on the ground acted in a very responsible way and didn't blow the incident out of proportion, he says. They may have seen to it that the general public didn't get to know much about what happened. And Germany's newspapers, including the mass-circulation tabloid, haven't made a big fuss about it, probably understanding that undue sensational coverage wouldn't help anybody."

The Pakistani embassy has been primarily interested in learning more about the circumstance which led to the Pakistani's suicide. Family members had voiced the suspicion that the young man may have been tortured in prison. But Burhan Kesici finds that this accusation is far-fetched.

"I believe that this is highly unlikely, he says. Simply because the German judicial system has a record of treating such people fairly. I don't think, he adds, that further investigations will reveal anything to the contrary."

Michael Lawton/Hardy Graupner

© Deutsche Welle 2006

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