Paris: Suspected Terrorist Attack Kills German Tourist

Facts

• A German tourist has been killed and two others have sustained non-life-threatening injuries in what French Pres. Emmanuel Macron called a terror attack at the Bir Hakeim bridge in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, on Saturday.¹
• The suspected assailant, identified as 26-year-old Franco-Iranian Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, has been arrested and placed in police custody, with a psychiatric follow-up expected. Three alleged members of his entourage have also been detained.²
• France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin claims that Armand was heard shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and told police he was upset due to the death of Palestinian and Afghan Muslims. He also reportedly accused France of complicity in conflict in Gaza.³
• Armand has an 'S-File' for potential extremism and previously spent four years in jail for planning a stabbing in the La Défense business district outside of Paris. He reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a video filmed before Saturday's attack.⁴
• France, which will host the Olympic Games in its capital next summer, has been under heightened alert for possible attacks since October, when a Russian-born former student fatally stabbed a teacher in the northern city of Arras.⁵
• This comes after German authorities arrested two teenagers last week for allegedly planning and preparing an attack against a synagogue and a Christmas market. The duo had reportedly planned to leave Germany to join an offshoot of the Islamic State active in and around Afghanistan.⁶

Sources: ¹CNN, ²Euronews, ³BBC News, ⁴Daily Mail, ⁵Al Jazeera and ⁶Daily Wire.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by France 24. Armand is yet another lone-wolf Islamic State attacker who, against the background of the Israel-Hamas war, felt prompted to carry out violent actions in his home country of France. Despite coming from a secular background, he converted to Islam and has long been radicalized online. This tragic incident exposes the need to expand interventionist, compulsory treatment for potential extremists with mental health issues.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by UnHerd. Another day, another terrorist attack in Europe. Yet, authorities and the media insist on regurgitating the fallacy of lone-wolf terrorism, as if such behavior could ever go unnoticed in their communities, as well as the myth of online self-radicalization, as if the environment played no role in this process. Instead of crying Islamophobia and blaming individual actions, authorities must take serious steps to prevent these attacks.

Predictions