A mob of asylum seekers from Afghanistan assaulted three teenage girls at a shopping center in the northern German city of Kiel. The attack — which occurred over two-hours on the evening of February 25, and mirrored the mass assaults of German women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve — shows, once again, that public spaces in Germany are becoming increasingly perilous for women and children.
Police reports show that sexual violence in Germany has skyrocketed since Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than one million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East into the country. But the crimes are being played down by German authorities, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.
Police in Kiel say the assault began at around 5:30 pm, when two Afghan males (aged 19 and 26) began stalking and photographing three girls (aged 15, 16 and 17) at a food court in the Sophienhof, a large shopping center near the city’s central train station.
After posting photographs of the girls on social media, the two men were quickly joined by at least 30 other migrants who began collectively to harass the girls in a Muslim “rape game” known in Arabic as “taharrush” (al-taharrush al-jinsi, Arabic for “sexual harassment”).
When police arrived, the migrants, rather than running way, began verbally and physically abusing the officers, some of whom were injured. It took police two hours to restore order. The initial two perpetrators, asylum seekers from Afghanistan, were arrested; the other migrants involved in the incident remain at large.
At a news conference on February 27, police spokesman Oliver Pohl revealed that more women are now coming forward to report similar experiences at the Sophienhof.
The owner of a restaurant at the mall said:
“Groups of young men gather at the Sophienhof every evening. What they do here is unacceptable. The moment they see a young woman wearing a skirt or any type of loose clothing, they believe they have a free pass. It is about time migrants are made to understand: things in Germany function differently than in their home countries.”
In an interview with Kieler Nachrichten, the local leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), Wolfgang Kubicki, expressed dismay at the deteriorating security situation in Kiel:
“It cannot be that girls and women, as well as their parents or spouses, should be afraid in public spaces. People are asking: If you are no longer safe in Sophienhof, where then?
“The perpetrators must be brought to justice. We must not create the impression that perpetrators will go unpunished for such assaults. … Turning a blind eye to such incidents is the opposite of integration and ultimately leads to the creation of parallel societies.
“It starts with small things. Time and again I keep hearing from the police how disrespectful young migrants are towards the officers. We have to support our security forces and reverse the loss of confidence in the police and judiciary. Otherwise we risk citizens taking the law into their own hands. I do not want to see vigilantes patrolling our streets.”
Kubicki was referring to revelations that politicians in Kiel ordered the city police to overlook many of the crimes perpetrated by migrants. A document leaked to the newspaper Bild in late January showed that the orders were given in October 2015, when more than 10,000 migrants were entering Germany each day. According to Bild, police in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony have also been instructed to be lenient to criminal migrants.
Read the Remainder at Gatestone Institute
