Terrorism is something that no one wants to ever experience. It is something that anyone can do at any given time in any given place. That is exactly what the attendees of a labor union demonstration witnessed on Thursday.
Demonstrators were attending a trade union strike on Thursday around 10:30 local time for the company ver.di located in Munich when the driver of a Mini Cooper drove into a crowd of around 1,500 people, injuring 39 as of now, with two deaths being reported. The driver and suspect, Farhad N., who cannot be given his full name due to privacy rules in Germany, is a 24-year-old Afghani man who was seeking refuge in Germany. After he was arrested, “the suspect said “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” to police and then prayed after his arrest.” With an attack like this, it brings back the haunting scenes of the Christmas parade attack in Waukesha in 2021. While both attacks are more or less the same, there are some differences.
Hank, who will not be fully named for privacy reasons, is a student at UW-Whitewater and part of the German Club on campus, believes that a parallel can be made between how the events in 2021 and the Munich attack can be connected to some form of motivation. “Both of these individuals (referring to Farhad and Darrell Brooks) were distressed and committed the same type of attack,” he says. “They seem to have had little to care about and an indiscriminate hatred towards the majority of people.” While the 2021 attack was not caused by religious motivation, it is still considered to be an act of terrorism.
After the 2021 attack, there were some concerns about similar events happening again, and the events in Munich have ignited those concerns once again. Jacob, a student at UW-Whitewater who will not be named for privacy reasons, is earning a degree in terrorism and counterterrorism this year from the university. When asked about the background of Farhad N., and comparing it with Darrell Brooks, he said it was not possible. “Both had previous interactions with police for multiple incidents,” he says. He goes on to tell me that his Narhad’s unsuccessful attempt to gain asylum in Germany might have caused some hard feelings towards the German government, but for Brooks, it was due to the fact that he has a history of a violent past. “Drawing comparisons between their personal histories isn’t an effective way to determine the path to radicalization.”
Ingmar Peters, who lives in Munster, was working from home when he heard about the news. “I saw the headline and was shocked about what I read,” Peters says. “It is not long ago that the last attack happened, and it almost seems to be the new reality.” He also tells me that better background checks on people seeking asylum in the country could have potentially prevented this.
While both the 2021 Waukesha parade attack and the 2025 Munich attack can draw comparisons in the method of attack chosen by the attacker, it is safe to say that better security measures need to be taken in order for something like this to not happen again in the future, not only in our local communities, but around the world as well.
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