This lengthy story about the Islamic jihadist who recently went on a stabbing spree in a supermarket in Hamburg attempts to show how his “transformation highlights a growing problem among refugees in the country: mental illness.” Here are some of the indications, as far as Spiegel is concerned, that “Ahmed A.” is descending into insanity:
“According to the reports, A. would sometimes withdraw for days, and he had stopped drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. During these periods, he spent more time at the mosque than usual and berated his Muslim friends for not obeying the rules of Islam. But then he seemed perfectly normal again. The friends were perplexed. Was A. merely ’emotionally drained’ or had he been radicalized?”
“The man’s account resembled that of Ahmed A.’s friends. He said that a man he knew at the Kiwittsmoor refugee hostel in the Langenhorn neighborhood had stopped drinking and smoking, and was talking a lot about religion. The police officer filed a report. It would later emerge that the man in question was Ahmed A.”
“A. was also exhibiting strange behavior at the Kiwittsmoor refugee hostel. He was knocking on the doors of other residents at night, shouting, ‘Allahu akbar,’ or God is great. Crazy, out of it, strange — these were the words counselors and fellow residents were now using to describe the young asylum-seeker.”
So Ahmed A. stopped drinking and smoking marijuana, and started berating his Muslim friends for not following Islam. He started knocking on doors at the refugee hostel at night while screaming “Allahu akbar.” That showed that he was “crazy, out of it, strange.”
In reality, of course, it showed that he was becoming “radicalized,” in the current parlance, and even as Spiegel searches for clues of his “radicalization,” its army of authors doesn’t see them when they’re in plain sight. Spiegel’s author squadron seems to think that if only counselors had been able to get through to poor Ahmed A., he would have stopped knocking on doors and screaming “Allahu akbar,” and would never have stabbed anyone.
Spiegel doesn’t take into account the power of Islam for a man like Ahmed A.: the idea that he is serving Allah by menacing and trying to kill Infidels, and outweighing all his sins on the great scales of judgment by doing so, is something that never enters their considerations, because they don’t believe it exists. They even end their account by noting that Ahmed had cannabis in his blood when he went on his stabbing spree, implying that he was not a pious Muslim and was simply acting out on his mental illness. But they don’t know, or don’t want their readers to know, that the Qur’an teaches (21:47) that Muslims gain Paradise if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds, and a hadith has Muhammad saying that there was no deed greater than jihad. So Ahmed knew that he could get high and then, because he stabbed some Infidels, Allah would overlook the weed.
Non-Muslim authorities routinely ascribe jihad activity to mental illness, but here Spiegel is taking this willful ignorance to a new level.
“Attack Underscores Need To Address Refugees’ Mental Health,” by Laura Backes, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Hubert Gude, Martin Knobbe, Roman Lehberger, Andrew Moussa and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt, Spiegel Online, August 10, 2017:
In 2015, Ahmed A. was an unremarkable Palestinian asylum applicant with dreams of a new life in Germany. Two years later, he went on a deadly stabbing spree in a Hamburg supermarket. His transformation highlights a growing problem among refugees in the country: mental illness.
At the end of his asylum hearing on July 29, 2015, Ahmed A. wanted to get something off his chest. He had actually said everything there was to be said in the hearing, which had been underway for about 90 minutes. After a six-year odyssey across Europe, he must have realized that what had transpired in the hearing wasn’t enough to gain asylum in Germany.
He uttered just two more sentences, in the hope that they would help his cause: “I would also like to say that I have never caused any problems, neither in Norway nor in the other countries I was in. You’re welcome to make inquiries if you want to make sure.”
Two years later, one thing is clear: Ahmed A. was the man with the knife on a street in Hamburg’s Barmbek neighborhood. The man who stabbed five people on Friday, July 28, killing one of them. The Islamist who praised Allah as he tried to indiscriminately kill people with a 20-centimeter (8-inch) knife he had ripped out of its packaging in a local Edeka supermarket.
In two years, Ahmed A. had become a problem — a deadly one….
A team of DER SPIEGEL reporters has reconstructed the Palestinian’s journey from the Gaza Strip to the European Union, and has reviewed files and spoken with witnesses. It is clear that the authorities had learned through tips and warnings that Ahmed A. had radicalized and that he was in an unstable mental state. Employees at a counseling center where he was receiving care said they were overwhelmed. And a police detective even tried to recruit him as an informant in the Islamist community.
There were numerous conversations and emergency meetings, but apparently no one who consistently paid attention to the young man and his apparent psychological problems. Counselors and government officials neglected to obtain professional help — no psychologists, no doctors.
Ahmed A.’s case casts a light on a growing problem with Germany’s refugee policy: the growing number of mentally unstable asylum-seekers. Studies show that the longer an asylum procedure takes, the greater the susceptibility to mental illness. Iris Hauth of the Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology warns that there is a lack of adequate counseling services for refugees. Most importantly, she explains, counselors in refugee homes have to be trained in how to address these problems.
At first, Ahmed A. seemed to be open and approachable. DER SPIEGEL and SPIEGEL TV have an unpublished video interview, completed a year and a half ago, in which he seemed thoughtful and harmless as he spoke about his expectations and concerns. There was no sign of hate, but rather a sense of hope for a better life.
Unable to Convince Authorities
Ahmed A. was born in Al Baha, Saudi Arabia, in January 1991. When he was a child, the family moved to the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. That’s what he said at his hearing in July 2015, in an office of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in the Hamburg neighborhood of Hammerbrook….
In his conversation with the activist, Ahmed A. spoke at length about his failed attempts to gain asylum in Europe, not just in Norway, but also in Spain and Sweden, where one of his brothers lived. He talked about the attacks in Paris and the New Year’s Eve assaults on women in Cologne. He said that he regretted what had happened there, and that it was not at all representative of Muslims. He also said that the men who had committed sexual assaults in Cologne should be punished or deported.
A. also said that he was not religious. “I was born as a Muslim, but I am not religious. I believe in values, in good values,” he said, adding that he had Christian and Jewish friends. “I hope for peace, and I hate no one.”
A year and a half later, the same man would indiscriminately stab people in Hamburg, allegedly in the name Islam [sic]….
But the refugee activist received disturbing news from friends at the Hamburg Refugees Café in the weeks that followed. Something wasn’t right with Ahmed A., they said. He had severed ties with his friends, including the volunteer Deniz Rau.
According to the reports, A. would sometimes withdraw for days, and he had stopped drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. During these periods, he spent more time at the mosque than usual and berated his Muslim friends for not obeying the rules of Islam. But then he seemed perfectly normal again. The friends were perplexed. Was A. merely “emotionally drained” or had he been radicalized? No one believed that he could have been planning an attack, which is why they did not notify the police. Instead, in the spring of 2016 they turned to Legato, a Hamburg counseling center that deals with cases of “radicalization with religious underpinnings,” for advice….
Apparently, the Hamburg police didn’t learn that the refugee from the Gaza Strip had become radicalized in Germany until spring of 2016. On April 1, a concerned man walked into a police station at the back of the main train station in Hamburg. The officers at that particular station normally deal with pickpocketing cases and drug offences, not terrorism.
The man’s account resembled that of Ahmed A.’s friends. He said that a man he knew at the Kiwittsmoor refugee hostel in the Langenhorn neighborhood had stopped drinking and smoking, and was talking a lot about religion. The police officer filed a report. It would later emerge that the man in question was Ahmed A….
He was confronted with the Islamism allegations during his next appointment at the aliens’ registration authority. A. was apparently close to tears, an employee of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution later noted in his report, insisting that he was a peaceful person. But he was emotionally agitated, according to the report, and his facial expressions and gestures also caught his attention. These are all signs of an emotionally unstable personality.
But Ahmed A. was never seen by a psychologist or a psychiatrist, neither in the fall of 2016, when he appeared increasingly disturbed, nor at a later date….Beginning in November 2016, there were growing signs that Ahmed A. was becoming radicalized. A tip from an employee of the refugee café at the university in Hamburg reached the security authorities. The employee said that she had seen the Palestinian at the café a number of times. One day, she said, Ahmed A. turned up at the café dressed in a djellaba, a traditional Arab robe. “Terror will come to this place, too,” he allegedly threatened.
A. was also exhibiting strange behavior at the Kiwittsmoor refugee hostel. He was knocking on the doors of other residents at night, shouting, “Allahu akbar,” or God is great.
Crazy, out of it, strange — these were the words counselors and fellow residents were now using to describe the young asylum-seeker. But who could speak with him if even professional counselors were unable to get through to him? There was a lot of discussion in late 2016 and early 2017, but very little was decided. As a result, Ahmed A. was left on his own, and he increasingly began to drift away….
At 3:10 p.m., he took a kitchen knife from a shelf in an Edeka supermarket in Hamburg-Barmbek and ripped off the packaging. A trainee was straightening up rice packages when he heard loud noises in the next aisle. Thinking that some customers were fighting, he ran over to break it up.
When he entered the next aisle, the trainee saw a man with a crazy look in his eyes and knife in his hand, only two meters away. He turned and ran away, hiding in the employee bathroom. An employee working behind the meat counter watched as A. approached another customer and, without hesitation, stabbed him in the chest. The 50-year-old man collapsed immediately and intially [sic] survived, but eventually succumbed to the severe injuries. Ahmed A. ran outside, shouting, his face red with anger. He stabbed passersby outside the supermarket, until young men managed to stop him with chairs, rocks and sticks. Like Ahmed A., most of the young men were migrants. They are now being called the “heroes of Barmbek.”
When he was questioned, A. said that he wanted to die as a “martyr.” Investigators have not been able to determine if he was in contact with IS or another terror organization. IS has also not claimed responsibility for the attack, as it often does in such cases. Still, during his interrogation Ahmed A. insisted that he is a terrorist. When they searched his room at the refugee hostel, the investigators found a self-painted picture with the seal of the Prophet in his locker, the same kind of picture used by IS. There were also traces of cannabis in his blood.
Anti-jihad says
I think Mohammed was mentally ill. Who else but a psychiatric patient could come up with a “religion” like Islam? Someone who has been “radicalized” has just fallen for the mental illness hook, line and sinker. That still doesn’t absolve the jihadi since it was a controlled descent into insanity.
Sarah says
I tend to disagree, to be honest.
I sincerely doubt ole Mo was off the rails. Quite the contrary. He was a cunning little buggar. An exceptional manipulator, charming, capable of convincing others of what he was saying.
And look at how Islam changed from its original ‘lets all be friends’ approach – to the ‘conquer and enslave everyone in your path and kill anyone who resist’ – which all falls very very neatly in line with his rise to power.
He wasn’t crazy. He was a cunning little, power hungry, sadistic despot. The reason why we know nothing about his life prior to Islam is no doubt because he was just a useless, illiterate camel riding twit who didn’t have power, money or a tribal name to back him.
Islam was just a set of ideas that Mohammed dreamt up to use as justification to gather some power and self importance. When it really started to grow, he clearly got rather excited with ideas of riches, more power and glory. He had a group of gullible, uneducated, desert dwelling primitives hanging off his every word to do his bidding (note the ‘rewards’ for the male Muslims who die fighting for Islam – think about what kind of men were in that group of followers, who needed to be promised things like that in order to go and slaughter their way across the Arabian Peninsula).
He was devious, he was cunning, he was sly, he was manipulative, he was charming and he was clearly – very convincing.
They are not the hallmarks of a crazy person. The hallmarks of a genuine psychopath, sure, maybe he was one. But he wasn’t padded room crazy.
R Russell says
Perhaps it is time for the apostate Christian West to take a look at the 3 types of ill-health Jesus dealt with in the Gospels.
1. Physical ill-health. 2. Mental ill-health 3. I will leave the reader to research that one themselves for not all aberrant behaviour fits into point 2.
Robeaver says
Yes, that helps a lot.
R Russell says
What more help do you want? The 4 Gospels are available online for free. The research isn’t hard.
James Pierce says
It’s only fitting that refugees become mentally ill. Then their mental state will match that of the liberals who want them here
Benedict says
A religion that insists that man can expiate his sins by his own works, good or bad, is deadly – and Islam is such a religion. No wonder Muslims despise and hate Christianity which is founded on the dogma, supported by reality, that “there is no one who does good, not even one.”
stan lee says
There seems to be the “expert” opinion that “A” was radicalized in Germany, or the EU since “A” apparently was well-traveled in Europe. If his being in Germany and thus radicalized, that begs the question of would “A” have been so radicalized had he remained in Gaza? There is so much “radicalization” coming to a boiling point among Muslims upon their necessary transitions to multi-religious venues that these frequent “radicalizations” could well be the Muslim thinking deficit when exposed to populations free to practice various religious beliefs.
Those various beliefs do not prescribe murder or conquest but do prescribe freedom to worship as people please or not worship at all, The one proviso exists “to cause no harm to other people” who also exercised their freedom of choice concerning religion or atheism.
I believe the Muslim psyche cannot endure such freedom of choice, Muslim indoctrination from childhood sets Muslim values which cannot make an emotional leap to such freedom, and “A’ relied upon alcohol or drugs which temporarily settled him down in order that he could be acceptable in a society where freedom of choice exists.
The laws also provide that people should not be attacked and harmed for exercising their freedom in peace. I think that the German government reflects its guilt for recklessly admitting a flood of migrants, while minimizing the possibilities of what German authorities call “radicalization” (and did it all start here because of German society?) when the flood of Muslims turned loose in a Europe where borders are a joke, migrated from one area to another in search of a comfort zone with familiar to Muslims practices. When they realize such places are non-existent, anger and violence precedes what Germany passes off as “radicalization” as if that was cultivated by Germany itself, or for that matter happening in any other Euro setting.
Attacks by Muslims, most of which cannot deal peacefully with assimilation, is not only in Germany, though Germany championed the immigration of Muslims and has had most of the problems…..But Sweden is even in worse shape!
It is not only Germany, but any area where Islam literally collides with freedom of religion and choice. And, the EU is in denial about it! Sweden hasn’t the manpower resources to control the results of what I believe comes in the “package” of every migrant Muslim, indoctrinated from childhood to disrespect and hate other peoples who peacefully choose to follow their own religious ideologies or none at all. ex The overall democratic requirement is to abide by established civil laws, whereas in many places Islamists insist upon establishment of Shariah while scoffing at the laws of all host countries.
It is one thing to welcome the foreigner exhibiting peaceful intentions and gratitude, but that is not Muslim behavior, when there has been lifetime instructions from their q’uran that no other ideology but theirs is the one “correct” belief, and any other belief must not exist. When such a Muslim directive is resisted by any other peaceful religion or believers, then Muslim extremism comes as a result, and the appeasers of the EU name that “radicalization.” That is not dealing with reality, but EU dealing with its guilt for its insane social experimentation with an extremism established 1400 years ago.
WorkingClassPost says
Wtf is going on here?
He was born in Saudi Arabia, then his parents took him to live in a refugee camp in Gaza!
He comes to Europe to smoke weed, visit Norway, Germany and ‘other’ countries!
So he’s never worked a day, took more holidays than most of those paying for his keep, drinks, smokes, gets bored and kills.
He’s not the one with mental issues, it’s our dopey system that needs a psychiatrist.
We should start with Merkel and work down from there.
Mockingjay says
Yes – born in Saudi Arabia, then his family “moves” to go live in a “refugee camp” – now isn’t THAT odd, isn’t it?
Turns out – not that odd at all.
As it happens to be, there were only a handful of muslim arabs living in the territory that was to become the state of Israel. After Israel had been established though, the so called “Palestinian” population of the “Palestinian refugee camps” – and territories – seems to have literally EXPLODED.
How this happened? – Well, you’ve got the answer right here in the story of poor Ahmed. – Arabs simply moved from all over the Middle East, and as it turns out, EVEN from S. Arabia, to Israel, to then go and claim that “Israel stole their land.”
– The truth is of course, they only came because they see it as their religious duty to drive the Jews out. They came to occupy Jewish land. It’s as simple as that.
Now it is BLOODY absurd and COMPLETELY beyond me how ANYONE with an ounce of sense would accept all these lies and feel like “defending” the poor “palestinians”.
But many do. And especially Germans.
andra says
It´s not only Germans who fall for the poor “palestinians”. France and Sweden – and I think even the Vatican – have accepted Palestine as a country. I am pretty sure the actual German government would like to do so as well but it would collide with the guilt-cult.
Mockingjay says
Andra, I wasn’t trying to single out Germans per se, because I know that there are indeed MANY countries in the West who are so very eager in accepting the palestinians’ victim claims, – but it is also a fact that, f.e. many NGO workers in the “Palestinian territories” are Germans. (And Swiss too, by the way. Read “Catch the Jew!” by author Tuvia Tenenbom, it’s a great book. Very enlightening.)
Custos Custodum says
Somehow, this story smells. Phakestinians are generally not stupid. They would have had an acceptable life in Saudi Arabia even though Saudis never gives passports to Phakies whom they regard as bastardized half-Arab riffraff. If they ACTUALLY moved to a “refugee camp” in Gaza, it’s because the Saudis had EXPELLED them for some crime. BTW what was this Saudi-born “refugee” fleeing from?
Exactly. How much welfare money, rent support etc. did he rake in throughout his Odyssey around Europe’s welfare system?
Johan Elzinga says
This is what the authorities and the press has been lying about. The man was clearly radicalized, he was still in Germany – or in Europe – illegally. It remains a complete riddle to me as to how it is possible that those individuals are being let in, and then can stay forever and ever and ever. Even though they have been declared illegal. How is it that we cannot send them back, or to close all relationships with that particular country (and certainly all trade and tourism, and all air flights) if they don’t take them back? Marocco would be a good candidate for that decision, as would Egypt and Algeria. How can it be that we still have trade relationships with countries that are not willing to take back their “refugees”? I don’t personally give a rats ass if those countries are safe or not. They never will be this way.
Guest says
Believing in Islam is a form of mental disease.
Mockingjay says
– Wait – there is more to this story, and “strangely” nothing about it is mentioned in this Spiegel article.
( – All this article seems to be REALLY concerned about is, how Europe needs to do SO much more for refugees’ mental health – and this E V E N if the refugee in question already has been DENIED asylum, as in this case – after all, it is Europe’s responsibility to look after ALL these people who come to us “with dreams of a new life”, with EVERYTHING we can possibly throw at them in terms of support and (health)care…)
On the 9th of August, this article was published on the NDR (North German broadcasting company) website:
https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Messerangreifer-wollte-mehr-Menschen-toeten,barmbek344.html
In it, there are three things that Ahmed stated during his interrogation that I think are truly noteworthy. – Not that anything appeared about it in any International Media. I only found this article by chance.
So, here are the three things that poor, mentally ill Ahmed declared:
– First, that he had intended to kill as many CHRISTIANS AND YOUNG PEOPLE as possible, and that the number of victims that he managed to stab wasn’t really satisfactory to him,
– Second, that he had NOT planned the attack in advance, that it had been an impulsive decision on the day itself,
– And third, and most importantly, he declared that he had NOT done it “for isis”, but… for MUHAMMAD.
– These three things taken together provide a turning point, I think, in what will be coming to Europe. – Not that anyone in Europe would know from the Media – as I said, none of this was reported on, apart from on the NDR and in one German newspaper.
But THIS is Europe’s future: Muslims impulsively slaying as many Europeans as they can, for muhammad, the prophet of islam.
FRANCIS X MEANEY says
The mental illness is Islam. Anyone who believes in these fairly tales of the devil is nuts.
Anti-jihad says
Agreed.
Lars Lonte says
Read the books written by Jaya Gopal from India “The misery of Islam”
The Epoch Times
http://www.theepochtimes.com
Nonie Darwish says
The ideology of Islam itself contributes to mental illness if Muslims actually follow the commandments of Islam.
John Forbes says
The claim of mental illness is another form of DENIAL about religious fanaticism being spread in the WEST !
The WEST & the LEFT simply refuse to believe or even examine the Doctrines as taught in ISLAM & DENY the connection between the teachings & the Actions of the killers & Bombers of ISLAM !
This denial needs to be continually RUBBISHED & as DOUGLAS MURRAY states in his POST – what have we learned – we all need to REJECT the LIES of ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE & VIOLENCE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM !
These are clever lies but lies that can & will lead is all to DEFEAT if we do not DEMAND that our GOVERNMENTS stop REPEATING THEM !!!
Sarah says
Our empathy and compassion as Westerner’s seemingly knows no bounds. Here we are, discussing this Muslim who may or may not have a mental illness – and the entire tone revolves around how we need to identify these Muslims with mental illness sooner so as to provide them with help.
Yes,we certainly do need to identify the nut-jobs sooner – so we can deport immediately, without delay or appeal.
Ahmed A was born in Saudi Arabia. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that makes him a Saudi. He can call himself Palestinian til the cows come home – all that means is that he’s an Arab anyway- but he comes from a birthplace where he can absolutely go back to, safely.
He has been denied residency in a number of European nations up to this point – meaning he’s been ticking down the list, just relocating along as needed to reapply in new nations as needed.
He is a goddamn country shopping Arab with Saudi citizenship who has no provable need to seek asylum and is instead, seeking to economically migrate.
A Saudi born Arab, with presumably, little to no marketable work skills or transferable educational training, seeking to economically migrate, who keeps getting turned down and is growing more and more desperate. Add in Islam to that heady little mix, increase the sense of desperation he’s feeling – and what we have is NOT a mental illness, but a piece of shit who as the article suggests, probably carried out his stabby little rampage as a way to wipe out his Islamic sins of consuming drugs and alcohol.
Yeah Europe, this one is a winner. Better keep him.
Even if he is, in fact, riddled with God only knows what kind of mental health issues – the cold hard reality here that no-one seems to be addressing is that it is simply NOT THE WEST’S PROBLEM to invite in and support a metric tonne of Muslims who are madder than shit house rats, to coin the phrase.
The West cannot reasonably be expected to take in anyone, let alone a huge group of people, riddled with medical issues that will be a lifelong burden on the state and most importantly -the taxpayer. I am all for offering asylum to anyone who can prove they are in danger of losing their life in their country of origin – TEMPORARILY. And then sending them back home once its safe to do so.
They’re called ‘Temporary Protection Visas’, we’ve used them in my nation before – they can be used again. They should always be used when someone is seeking asylum in a nation that is not the nearest safe nation to their home-land and especially where the culture, practices, laws and values are practically alien.
Ahmed A deserves the firing squad for what he’s done. If its provable that he has an actual mental illness, then Saudi Arabia are welcome to lodge a diplomatic protest and take the feral back home. Since we don’t use the death penalty in most Western nation’s anymore, then instead of the taxpayers funding his little prison holiday and mental hospital sojourn – he should be fingerprinted and recorded – with those details passed to every single Western nation on the planet, so he can be recognized if he pops up somewhere else. Then, deport the loser and permanently ban him for life, for ever returning to a Western nation for absolutely any reason whatsoever.
We cannot logically, sensibly or realistically take in every sick, dying or mentally unsound individual from the Islamic world and provide them with everything they could ever need or want – for their entire lives. We do not have streets paved with gold. We do not have national budgets that are bottomless wells. We cannot afford to do it. And the truth is – we should not have to do it. We are under absolutely no obligation to do so.
I don’t see Saudi Arabia opening their arms and saying ‘poor guy. He’s sick in the head. Well, since he’s a Saudi, we’ll take him back and spend a fortune caring for him for the rest of his life’
So why the hell should the West? If they can prove WHO they are and prove WHAT risks they are facing – then issue Temporary Protection Visas with very limited rights and freedoms within the nation offering asylum, then send them back as opportune to do so. Anyone else looking to economically migrate, or anyone who cannot prove who they are and what they are running from – deport immediately, without delay, without allowing appeal and without exception.
manat bint allaha says
all this is an oxymoron.
islam is a mental disease and should be confined to psychiatric wards, not the public space.