Paris knife attacker 'swore allegiance to Islamic State'
France 24Dec 03, 2023
The Facts
A German tourist has been killed and two others have sustained non-life-threatening injuries in what French Pres. Emmanuel Macron called a terror attack at the Bir Hakeim bridge in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, on Saturday.
The suspected assailant, identified as 26-year-old Franco-Iranian Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, has been arrested and placed in police custody, with a psychiatric follow-up expected. Three alleged members of his entourage have also been detained.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Armand is yet another lone-wolf Islamic State attacker who, against the background of the Israel-Hamas war, felt prompted to carry out violent actions in his home country of France. Despite coming from a secular background, he converted to Islam and has long been radicalized online. This tragic incident exposes the need to expand interventionist, compulsory treatment for potential extremists with mental health issues.
Establishment-critical narrative
Another day, another terrorist attack in Europe. Yet, authorities and the media insist on regurgitating the fallacy of lone-wolf terrorism, as if such behavior could ever go unnoticed in their communities, as well as the myth of online self-radicalization, as if the environment played no role in this process. Instead of crying Islamophobia and blaming individual actions, authorities must take serious steps to prevent these attacks.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that there will be at least 20K fatalities resulting from terrorism in the world in 2023, according to the Metaculus prediction community.