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The attack could be a self-organized act, said political scientist Schmidinger. Warns against incitement to hatred against Muslims.
The assassin who was killed yesterday while carrying out a terrorist attack in Vienna may only have committed the attack under an “IS label”, that is, on behalf of the Islamic State, but he organized and carried it out himself. According to the status of the investigation so far, there are some signs, such as weapons, Middle East expert and political scientist Thomas Schmidinger told the APA on Tuesday.
The killer was armed with a rifle and a fake explosives belt. A rifle can be obtained illegally in Vienna. “If you were a lone perpetrator, then you wouldn’t necessarily need the logistical support of an organization for such an attack,” says Schmidinger. Therefore, it could well be that the perpetrator is ideologically in agreement with ISIS and that the act was initiated by himself.
Of course, there is an IS organization that still exists, although the state-building process in the Middle East has failed. But there are also people who agree with the ideology and now use the label of IS for self-organized attacks, and in this case there are some arguments in favor. “There is some indication that this was not decided at ISIS headquarters, but that the reason Vienna was the target is based on the fact that the killer lived in Vienna and is a jihadist who has socialized in Vienna.” But it could also have been a hybrid, meaning that the killer was in contact with ISIS via social media. But it is still too early for a final evaluation.
Schmidinger is not surprised that a terrorist attack has now been carried out in Vienna. He always said that, of course, a jihadist attack could also happen in Vienna, just like in all other big cities, but that it doesn’t necessarily have to be. “We have been lucky so far because all previous attack plans have been thwarted at a very early stage.” In this case, something was apparently “overlooked” because the author had already been warned and even convicted of belonging to a terrorist organization. The authorities already knew the man.
Schmidinger said it was a “mistake” for Austrian authorities to give the killer’s full name today. He himself deliberately does not mention the name in public. “I would not mention the name in the media because it is used for the self-portrait of the murderer. Therefore, I would not spread the name.”
“Terrorism is always also a communication strategy,” explains Schmidinger, and the political success of this communication strategy is largely determined by the space of resonance, society, politics, the media, the public and, ultimately, society as a whole. The goal of terrorism is to cause fear and terror and provoke a violent reaction. “If you want to thwart this request, you have to defend calmly, decisively, but without re-sowing resentment, the existing pluralist democratic society.”
And you have to try to make offers to people now scared, to deal with this fear and talk about it. “The worst would be if we now panic, fear and horror, and if we fall into incitement against Muslims per se. That would be exactly what would benefit the Islamic State jihadism the most if that is between anti-Muslim racism and jihadism is stirring. ” Because the Islamic State and other Islamist and jihadist groups are working very hard on anti-Muslim resentment in society and thus mobilizing their own supporters, warns Schmidinger.
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