Sherbini murder verdict

28-year-old Alex W., a Russian-born German, was jailed for life for the murder of Marwa el-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian woman, in a Dresden courtroom last July, after stabbing her 16 times with a kitchen knife. Alex W., who has been living in Germany since 2003, also seriously injured the woman's husband, as he tried to protect his wife, stabbing him at least 15 times with the same knife.

The maximum sentence without parole handed down by the Dresden state court is a sign of the rule of law in Germany and that German society will not tolerate xenophobia.

But the murder of Sherbini has been interpreted by diehard fanatics as an expression of anti-Moslem sentiment in Germany. Highly emotional reactions of this sort were evident among mainstream Moslems in Egypt, Germany and other countries, which otherwise reject all forms of extremism.

Many Germans, on the other hand, saw in the murder of Sherbini nothing more than an isolated case of extremism. They were surprised about the hefty outbreak of emotions among Moslems and considered the reactions to be exaggerated and irrational.

The Dresden court, of course, was not charged with determining the appropriateness of these reactions or the degree of Islamophobia in German society. The court was there to judge the crime committed and its motivation. And the verdict was very clear: The murderer received the maximum penalty and must spend the rest of his days behind bars with no opportunity for parole.

The court, in its ruling, essentially did nothing more than underscore a self-evident principle; namely, that hate crimes, or even murder, in Germany will neither be tolerated nor trivialized, but that they will be punished to the maximum extent of the law.

Food for thought

Two points, however, remain unexplained. Firstly, many Moslems find it incomprehensible that in such a security-conscious country like Germany, someone can enter a courtroom with a knife. Secondly, the completely different perceptions of the murder case by Moslems and non-Moslems should provide food for thought.

In a less drastic and fortunately less violent form, the same deep mutual incomprehension could be seen that was witnessed during the 2006 Mohammed cartoon conflict and later in the controversial Regensburg address by Pope Benedict.

Unfortunately, from the Islamic side there were not many moderate voices pointing out that Moslems in Germany are not discriminated against by the state or even intentionally subjected to unlawful acts of violence.

And, unfortunately, on the German side there are only a few voices that have recognized the deeper problem.

Representative surveys indicate that, in some sectors of German society, there is deep distrust, fear, and even open aversion and animosity towards Islam.

This is an issue that German society must confront - in a manner that is credible to Moslems.

Rainer Sollich is the head of Deutsche Welle's Arabic Service (gb)

Editor: Susan Houlton