Marwa al-Sherbini, a 31-year-old Egyptian woman, was stabbed to death by her neighbour Axel W in a courtroom in Dresden, Germany. Marwa, about four months pregnant, wore the head scarf and was involved in a court case against Alex for calling her a terrorist. She was set to testify against him when Alex stabbed her 18 times in front of her three-year-old son and half a dozen German police officers.
The killing has dominated Egyptian media for days but has received comparatively little coverage in German and Western media.
What do you think of the reportedly low key response in Germany?
Every woman in the world has the right to protect their self dignity, and not to run around like pieces of flesh. this act may be forgotten by our media, the western media, but if things could just be oppressed, and hidden without proper justice, wouldn’t there be chaos? everything has consequences, It is up to God Allmighty to judge.
Please consider the following facts
– The lady was an egyptian and not a pakistani
– Hence, why get emotional about the topic as much as you guys are ? Is it because it was a muslim woman ?
– If the above is true, then please also consider why the world sees it as wrong. If you see the world as muslim vs non-muslim and by that logic any muslim being killed/hurt hurts your emotions – then why do you blame the world for seeing you as us vs them ?
– If it is purely a humanitarian concern (which I dont think it is in this case for a lot of posters here), then why dont you see it as that – without bringing the muslim vs non-muslim issue ?
– The fact that muslims want to dress up like muslims in non-muslim countries and even aggressively carry their identity on themselves begets the question of the intention of doing that in a foreign country. Why should you be canvassing your faith ? I have seen ppl talk loudly in a McDonald’s in London about how it is an american chain and that no muslim should eat there !!!
Think about it friends – the more exclusivist you become, the more the world would treat you like that. Imagine if a western woman was sunbahting in her backyard in islamabad and the world could see her like that – would you like it ? Similarly, if a woman wears all her islamic accoutrements in a western country – it sounds like she is trying to tell the western person that they are lesser than them because of the display of religiousity.
Think about it
I think it is terrible that this hate crime is not being shown in Western media. The holocaust museum shooting in the US was all over every Western media outlet for several days. ANd yet, when it is an Egyptian muslim it matters now.
Its very heart wrenching to hear such brutal act,why don’t we realize that before muslims or non muslims we are humans,why humanity is no longer found in humans………or has it become a trait of animals not to be found in human race……………
I believe some of the comments below are drawing wrong parallels between Pakistan/Islam and ‘West’ and why this henious crime should be considered as a ‘norm’ when compared to Pakistan.
We should keep the focus on the two sad facts that firstly,a pregnant woman was murdered in front of her family in a courtroom by an accused. Secondly the accused was so racial motivated and full of prejudice that he could not even tolerate the existence of ‘different’ women. He was probably a neo-nazi or some supremist so it could have happened to a Sikh, Hindu, Amish, Jew etc.
The argument that Islamic women (or men) should do away with their religious value for the safe of being “integrated” is a sell-out approach. Yes, Saudi Arabia and France have some strict rules around public or school appearance but the world opinion (righfully) is against it.
My kind request to the readers is to keep the issue at hand as objective as possible without maligning it with our own prejudices. This event is sad, deplorable, and talked about not matter where in the world it would have taken place.
I think that this is sad incident….but i know that like every other society such elements are present.now we have to wait and see what the german government and judcial sytem do with this case.
It is said that a pregnant woman was killed and we sympathize becuase she happened to be a Muslim.
We need to look ourselves, how we treat our own people?, I am talking about Pakistan. The western treat us in a similar manner as we treat our own nationals. However, the deceased would get justice in Germany which you do not expect in Pakistan.
What happened is wrong. I am pretty sure the killer would be in jail. What is happening is that there is growing backlash against Muslims in the west. 9\11, Madrid bombing, London bombing, Theo Van Gogh killing etc brought fear among westerners. On top of that Muslim ghettos in Paris and London are becoming no go zone for cops. People are exposing what mullahs say privately inside so called moderate Muslim mosques promoting harmony. Just look at Youtube you will see Muslims in the streets of London promising to capture Rome and impose Sharia.
All the while moderate Muslims remain quite. If a non Muslim criticize any of those acts he is threatened by the extremists that by criticizing those acts you have offended 1.5 billion Muslims. This kind of intimidation has to go and Moderates have to speak up, otherwise incidents like this will increse and will soon find political support.
German Society is very torlant society now as compared to the early half of the 20th century. Here minorities have much rights even the people who are here for visit or work can clam there rights. The man who stabbed her, from what I have read, is not german by birth rather a Russian born German like may other foreigners who come to this country and live here and latter nationalised.
I cant believe what I am reading. How can people on this website blame the woman!! She was exercising her right in court and was stabbed to death! Arent these countries supposed to be the so called “civilized” “1st world” nations? Sounds like they have just as much “tolerance” as the rest of the world. I do have to say that America is leaps and bounds above any other nation as far as tolerance and free society.
I live in the US and the only reason I heard about this case is through the internet. If the roles were reversed and a muslim killed someone in a courtroom or a german killed a jew……it would be plastered over every television in the world.
Many individuals commenting on Marwa al-Sherbini’s murder have missed the point. The issue is not whether she has the right to dress the way she does, or the German judicial system is better or worse than in Pakistan or any other Muslim country.
The fundamental issue is she was stabbed in court in the presence of a judge(or judges), lawyers and other court officials. The stabbing continued for EIGHT minutes and nobody except her husband tried to defend her.
This is absolutely outrageous. Western media coverage has either been low-key or dismissive of the brutal assault and murder.
One can imagine the outcry–and rightly–if something like this had happened in Pakistan or any other Muslim country.
We have the tragic example of Neda Agha-Soltan who was shot in Tehran. The circumstances of her killing are not clear; we do not know who shot her but the Western media went berserk over her death.
Why the lack of interest in Marwa al-Sherbini’s brutal stabbing death?
Those who argue that there are extremists among Muslims or that courts in Pakistan are biased miss the point. These cannot be used to deny justice to the victim of a brutal assault leading to her death in a German court.
Nor does Marwa’s wearing the hijab justify the assault. It is not illegal under German law to dress that way.
A crime is a crime no matter who perpetrates it and it is incumbent upon the German authorities to pursue this case vigorously and for the media to show fairness and admit that such brutal assaults have become common not only in Germany but many other Western countries as well.
Those who claim to be civilized will ultimately be judged on the basis of such claims.
I live in germany and I got to know this news from an islamic forum. Till then no western media and even no pakistani media has covered. This story was in egyptian and arab news papers of 3rd July, BBC published the story only for a little time on 6th July. Still no major german news paper has published it.
A german terrorist has brutally killed an innocent pregnant woman. He should be punished severely by the law for such a inhumane act. My sympathies with the family.
This is disgusting. Hope that justice is done and the perpetrator AND THE ONLOOKING COPS are punished.
Its a security lapse in courts.where were the security officers ? how did the culprit managed to bring knife ? his motives were clear to kill the pregnant lady without caring for courts.
I’m very much surprised that how firstly that man was able to kill her in the court with so many policeman.
Secondly if the western media is not in an uproar it the islamic countries media should be. We have many international channels from our home countries which should show this news again and again so as to make people aware of it.
and to the person who said ” do as romans do while living in rome” there is no hard and fast rule. And wearing a simple hijab is not a threat to anyone.
BUT hey, don’t get too worked up about it. Some sick man killed a pragnant lady in court room. People getting killed in court rooms happens often across the world.
I have been to Germany dozens of time and always felt it was is a very strictly controlled Police state.
The fact that somebody carried knife into a German courtroom is mind blowing. With the security checks using metal detectors and X-Ray machines before entring into any Government building how did the man manage to smuggle the knife in? It is true that there has not been much coverage in German media, even some of my German friends noticed that. But then it does not surprise me much. Being a police state they have tighter control over everything, even media. I don’t beleive that the media has been hushed because of racial discrimination but it probably has been done to avoid unrest in the country.
This proves that lunatics are everywhere and not just in Muslim countries. I reject the notion that “When you are in Rome, do as Romans do”. After all these western societies are not as tolerant and free as they claim they are. They are only tolerant of what they want to tolerate (Muslim Bashing). Muslims before they migrate and share their wealth of expertise to these societies need to understand the actualities and realities of western societies and not fall for the false advertisements. Western countries are attracting experienced and smart professionals, I believe, by falsely advertising themselves as liberal, just and tolerant.
If Allah forbids this incident was occurred in Pakistan or any other Muslim country, it would have been all over the western media minutes after it happened.
Mohammad Ali
Sacramento, California
Action speak them self, who is the actual terrorist, but as a Muslim we still divided. I think it is more than the eye opener for us (Muslim). We should unit with only one identity that we are MUSLIM and not TERRORIST or EXTREMIST.
To my muslims friends,
I have not seen such comments from my muslim friends when US journalist Denial Pearls was killed by muslim extremists. I feel for woman and man attached in front from police. It should not happened in front of police. Police should have shoot him down immidiately. Unfortunately that did not happend.
why so much hue & cry? Why don’t we see that what is happening in our own country? We are cursing western media that they are not giving the right full coverage to this incident but what about our own media? what we are doing? Every day lots of women get killed on the name of family honor, lack of dowry and other. Have we ever got out our cozy drawing rooms and protested against these unlawful killings? A big NO. This is a hot news that a German killed a Muslim woman but what about a Muslim killed a Muslim woman? Isn’t it a big/hot news? So, we should not raise the finger to others as the other fours pointed on us.
Well, just for a moment think if this was a muslim guy that has done the same thing to a woman in a court or whatever, what would have been the reation of the people not only in Germany but through out the west, then you would have seen the same news running 24 7 on CNN, BBC and all the other electronic media.
Many in the west are hypocritical. For example, the protests in iran (after the june 12 election) in which i think 20 or so people were killed was and still is a HUGE news in the west, but the killing of more then 1000 (mostly women and children), in Gaza earlier this year did not get as much coverage as it deserved.
The most saddest part is when the murderer commits a heinous crime by stabbing the woman 18 times. For me, it is a murderer of humanity! no matter what religion she holds, is this the way people around her will respond? forget about the common people, what was keeping the mentors of justice to stop this man? probably some kind of democracy? or some kind of human rights? with the same kind of human rights the woman was seeking justice? is there any end to this?
stabbing a woman, and that too infront of her child and in presence of the police officials is the worst preposterous and ugliest crime. that man should be beaten to death. how come such a liberal society as germany allow so much a humiliating act against humanity. that person has killed not a muslim woman, but a mother, and this is the real terrorism.