Michael Stürzenberger, a German activist and critic of political Islam, has been sentenced to pay a €3,600 fine for “incitement of the people” by a court in Hamburg.
The penalty on November 25 came six months after he was almost knifed to death, allegedly by an Afghan Islamist.
Stürzenberger confirmed the verdict on his Instagram account.
He has been expressing his alarm over what he has referred to as the dangers of political Islam for more than a decade.
He is the chairman of the citizens’ movement Pax Europa, whose mission is to inform the public about what it sees as the existential dangers the spread of political Islam creates for democratic societies in Germany and Europe.
On 31 May 2024, during an open-air event in the centre of Mannheim, Stürzenberger was attacked with a knife, allegedly by Sulaiman Ataee, an Afghan immigrant.
He was stabbed multiple times and had to undergo emergency surgery. Several bystanders were also targeted and Ataee allegedly also stabbed a police officer in the head and neck. The officer, Rouven Laur, later died of his injuries.
According to the state prosecutor on November 6, the alleged assailant had shown sympathy for the terror organisation Islamic State. Ataee’s neighbours have told German media he had been calling for a Muslim caliphate and lectured children about Islam. He is currently in custody awaiting trial.
Stürzenberger has since left the hospital but is still suffering from the after-effects of the assault.
The judges in Hamburg ruled that Stürzenberger had defamed refugees and Muslims during a protest in city in October 2020. A lower court had previously sentenced him to six months in prison. That was later reduced to four months’ probation on appeal, which was then replaced with the financial penalty of 120 daily payments of €30.
Stürzenberger told German news site Deutschland Kurier on November 29 that while at the protest he and his colleagues had informed interested passers-by about political Islam. “We draw a clear distinction between the dangers of political Islam and the many normal Muslims here who hold our democratic values in high esteem,” he said.
The prosecution had focused on six “pointedly put” remarks, which had led to the conviction for “incitement of the people”.
Stürzenberger has said that he believed most asylum seekers coming into Germany were not politically persecuted. He also alleged that many criminals in Germany were “Muslims from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Northern Africa” and said it was the programme of political Islam “to get women under control”.
Brussels Signal reached out to Stürzenberger and Pax Europa for additional commentary but had received no reply at the time of writing.
The Hamburg verdict has been met with stern criticism from many commentators. Among them, Dieter Arnold, an MP for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Bavaria, called it “a disgrace for the German justice system”.
