The news was shocking beyond measure: a man went on a stabbing spree at a playground in the French city of Annecy last Thursday, stabbing four three-year-olds and an adult. The attacker shouted “In the name of Jesus Christ” as he did his stabbing and claimed to be a Christian. He even had a made-to-order Christian name: Abdelmasih Hanoun; “Abdelmasih” means “Slave of Christ.”
It was suspicious and contrived, but it did seem to confirm the Leftist elites’ claim that the largest terror threat comes from right-wing Christians. There was just one catch: some people have recognized Abdelmasih Hanoun and say that he is actually a Muslim. I know, knock me over with a feather, right?
The French-language news site Resistance Républicaine reported Monday that “Syrians living in France and Germany” have recognized the attacker as a “madman of Allah,” and that the identification has been confirmed by others as well. The attacker, according to those who have recognized him, is actually a Muslim named Selwan Majd, “a refugee from Al-Hasakah in northern Syria.”
The chain of events that culminated with the stabbing of the children was set in motion when he “traveled to Turkey with false papers.” Once there, “he met a Swedish tourist and made her believe he was a Muslim convert to Christianity.” Love, or something, blossomed, and Turkey was no place to hang around in when big, beautiful Europe was beckoning.
The happy couple made their way to Sweden, where Majd married his Swedish bride, using the name “Abdelmasih Hanoun” and claiming to be a Christian. However, “the Swedish authorities doubted him,” with good reason as it turns out, “and refused to grant him citizenship.” Later, his Swedish wife left him, and he made his way to France. Once there, “he went to seek help in a church but the church also doubted him.”
Resistance Républicaine also notes that numerous refugees have given European authorities a great deal of false information. That’s certainly true. In Sweden several years ago, it was revealed that 5,460 of 7,000 Afghan “child migrants” were actually adults. In Britain, more than 2,000 adult migrants have been caught lying about their age and pretending to be children. Many migrants have claimed to be Christian, thinking that doing so would help their claim for asylum. Back in 2021, also in Britain, a man Enzo Almeni, who had converted to Christianity to get asylum in Britain, returned to Islam and became a jihad suicide bomber.
If the people who say they have recognized Selwan Majd are correct, it would certainly explain the anomalies of this peculiar case, which from the beginning seemed less like an actual case of Christian terrorism than a Muslim’s idea of what a Christian terrorist might be like. The attacker’s shout of “In the name of Jesus Christ” was all too obviously meant to be a parallel to the jihadis’ ubiquitous scream of “Allahu akbar.” But when has any Christian anywhere committed acts of violence while screaming this phrase? It was just too neat, suggesting not so much a Christian terrorist as someone who wanted very much to be thought of as a Christian terrorist.
Related: Did a ‘Christian Terrorist’ Just Go on a Stabbing Spree at a Playground in France?
The Christian name that the attacker used, Abdelmasih, was likewise a bit too obvious as if its whole point here again was to make onlookers aware that this individual was a Christian. During pauses between the attacks, he ostentatiously fingered a cross he was wearing around his neck, as if he wanted to make sure that people noticed it. But try to think of another instance of a cross-wearing Christian shouting about Christ and fingering a cross while stabbing people. This has, of course, never, ever happened, while Muslims screaming about Allah while stabbing people is all too common.
We don’t know why, if this report is accurate, Selwan Majd decided to pose as a Christian and stab random children. He may have been angered and disappointed by the failure of his pose as a Christian to gain him asylum in Sweden and France. Or maybe this was his plan all along: Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, famously said “War is deceit” (Bukhari 4.52.268).
Ultimately, however, we may never know the full story of this case, because once it stopped being a case of Christian terrorism, it no longer fit the media paradigm. Another Muslim migrant in Europe runs around stabbing random people? That’s not news; that’s an all too familiar feature of life in the brave new multicultural Europe.
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