In Europe, Christmas markets have become a target of Muslim terrorists in recent years. German officials have already foiled one plot to attack a market this month.
Five men suspected of planning attack number 8 were arrested in Germany last week: three Moroccans, an Egyptian, and a Syrian. One of them was a Muslim cleric at a mosque in Germany, who urged his followers to kill as many people as possible.
There have been seven Christmas Market attacks since 2014 – 3 in France and 4 in Germany, all carried out by men of Muslim or Middle Eastern backgrounds.
Christmas markets in France and Germany must now be surrounded by barriers to stop cars, and there is a large police presence and security patrols.
The extensive security follows last December’s attack at the Magdeburg Christmas market, when a man drove his SUV at a high rate of speed through the center of the market, killing six people and injuring more than 300.
The Berlin Christmas market attack in 2016 was also gruesome, when a Muslim terrorist drove a stolen semi-truck into a crowd, killing 12 people and injuring 56.
One Berlin woman named Katharina says all the security at the Christmas market makes her feel safe, but also reminds her that the threat is real.
Germany’s chancellor took a lot of heat for saying Germans are afraid of public spaces because of the threat of violent crime from migrants.
Friedrich Merz’s comment was ridiculed by some as ‘racist,’ and yet polling shows most German women and almost half of German men do not feel safe in public spaces like Christmas markets that are targeted by Muslim terrorists.
Andreas Lichert, a conservative Parliament member in the state of Hessen, explained, “This is, of course, a horrific development. We have too many radical Islamists inclined to use violence. And it’s specifically our, our Christian background that’s also being targeted.”
***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters to ensure you receive the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***
Islam expert Robert Spencer says jihadists attack Christmas markets because they view the Christian belief that Jesus is the son of God as sinful, and Christmas markets attract large numbers of Christians, as well as non-Christians.
“They don’t have a problem with the virgin birth, actually. The virgin birth is in the Quran. But nonetheless, they believe that Christmas is not only a manifestation of unbelief, but of shirk, which is the worst sin in Islam. It is the association of partners with Allah. That is, you worship Allah, but you also worship various created beings, in this case, Jesus. It is the identification of Jesus as the Son of God that they object to,” Spencer explained.
Some have criticized the large sums of tax money spent on added security, saying European leaders also need to do something about the source of the threat: the large numbers of potentially violent jihadists now living in Europe.
