Michael Stürzenberger, 59, is an anti-Islam activist who was slated to speak at an event organized by his campaign group, Pax Europa, on June 3rd before an Afghan immigrant went on a stabbing spree. The attack left one police officer dead and five others injured including Stürzenberger, who was presumably an intended target due to his past harsh criticisms of Islam.
Last Wednesday, Stürzenberger was convicted of incitement to hatred by a Hamburg regional court, but not in relation to the attack he suffered, Spiked reports. The conviction is based on remarks he made at a rally in Hamburg in 2020. He was originally handed a 6-month prison sentence in 2022 but appealed the conviction and his sentence was subsequently reduced, which reports have indicated happened because he had become the victim of an assassination attempt.
Spiked outlines how Stürzenberger has been the subject for strengthening Germany's anti-hate speech laws in the past. In 2014, German outlet Der Spiegel published a piece featuring his "anti-Islam rhetoric' and asked "whether it's time for a new kind of hate-crime legislation." The then-mayor of Munich claimed that Stürzenberger was using the rising popularity of right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) to appeal to Germans through anti-Islam rhetoric.
