Chancellor Kurz sees a fight between civilisation and barbarity
By: Marta Rodriguez
Last Monday a terrorist attack in Vienna left 4 people killed and at least 20 injured. It happened near Vienna’s main synagogue at 8pm, when all pubs and restaurants where full of people just before the lockdown which was about to be implemented on Tuesday.
Photo curtesy of Unrated Studio via pixabay
Kujtim Fejzulai, one of the attackers, was shot by the police nine minutes into the attack. Fejzulai was born in Vienna and had an Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship. He had been arrested on his way to join ISIS in Syria in April 2019 and sentenced to 22 months in prison – from where he was released early on 5 December on parole.
The police cordoned off the area and advised everyone to stay at home. They searched 18 properties and arrested another 14 people.
The city centre remained closed off during the night as 1,000 police officers patrolled the streets. Tuesday morning still saw hundreds of people taking refuge in the many café’s and bars and the national theatre.
Two men and two women were reported to be dead with several others in critical condition or mildly injured, including a policeman.
A day later, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. They called the shooter "Abu Dujana Al-Albany" and said he used two guns (one of which was a machine gun) and a knife.
German police and Swiss police are also searching for suspects. The swiss police arrested two people but links to Fejzulai have not been confirmed. Germany is searching in houses and offices of Osnabrueck, Kassel and the district of Pinneberg near Hamburg in relation to four people who are believed to be linked to Fejzulai.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz referred to the murders as ‘cold blooded’ and stated that everything would be done to pursue those behind them.
He declared that “the enemy, the Islamist terror, wants to split our society, but we will give no space to this hatred.” “Our enemies are not the members of a religious community, these are terrorists. This is not a fight between Christians and Muslims, or Austrians and migrants, but a fight between civilisation and barbarity.”
Following the rising in terrorist attacks in Europe, not only with this attack but also the one in France last month the UK has upgraded the terrorist threat in the country from ‘substantial’ to ‘severe’.
