He told people he was with the Islamic State, but Cologne officials are discounting that because he “may have been suffering from psychological problems, appeared dishevelled with unkempt long hair and a three-day beard, and was under the influence of alcohol.”
That only clean-shaven people with neatly combed hair can be jihadis is actually unproven. That he was drinking is immaterial, because jihadis know that their act of jihad will outweigh any sins they commit. “We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment,” says the Qur’an (21:47): if one’s good deeds outweigh one’s evil deeds, one will go to Paradise, but if one’s evil deeds outweigh one’s good deeds, one will go to hell. And what good deed weighs the most? A hadith has a Muslim asking Muhammad: “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” Muhammad replied, “I do not find such a deed.” (Bukhari 4.52.44)
So if a believer goes on jihad, his good deeds will outweigh all his evil deeds. Thus if a jihadist knows he is about to wage a great jihad, he knows its value will outweigh anything evil he has done, and he can relax a bit, have a few drinks, etc.
He “may have been suffering from psychological problems”? If so, then he may have decided to wage jihad as an attempt to get into Allah’s good graces and do something to outweigh all the evil deeds he had committed. In any case, “mental illness” is a common dodge for officials today who want to downplay and deny the idea that a jihad attack has been committed. It is used so often as to invite doubt and ridicule whenever it is invoked.
“Cologne officials hesitate to label attack ‘terrorism,'” by David Crossland, Handelsblatt Global, October 17, 2018:
German federal prosecutors are due to take over the investigation into the hostage-taking at Cologne’s main train station on Monday in a sign it is being treated as a possible terrorist attack.
Authorities said they weren’t ruling out terrorism but are keeping an open mind after it emerged that the attacker, a 55-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker, may have been suffering from psychological problems, appeared dishevelled with unkempt long hair and a three-day beard, and was under the influence of alcohol.
Police said he lived in Cologne and had come to Germany at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015. His residence permit is valid until 2021. The suspect amassed a lengthy criminal record in just two short years for various crimes including theft and causing injury.
Reunification visaHis wife lives in Syria but has twice been denied a family reunification visa. He also has a son, who lives in Offenbach near Frankfurt. The son was also questioned by police.
The attack began in the McDonald’s inside the station early on Monday afternoon after he poured a gasoline and the floor and set it alight. The resulting explosion was recorded by a video surveillance camera. A 14-year-old girl was seen fleeing the restaurant with her legs on fire and had to undergo an operation for burns. Police said other customers in the restaurant were lucky not to have been seriously injured.
When the sprinkler system turned on, the man ran into a pharmacy in the station and took a female employee hostage. In negotiations with the police he demanded the release of a Tunisian woman being held in jail as well as free passage. He also demanded a suitcase and a bag he had left behind in the McDonald’s.
The police said he told passersby he belonged to the “terror group Daesh,” which is the Arabic acronym for Islamic State….