Knife Story

Early here in the AM (in Germany), N-TV news (commercial news network) carried this basic story....which goes to a moral lesson....never try to moderate extreme disputes that involve more than two people. 

So over in Aue, Germany....about 100 miles east of Fulda (central region), this Christian group was having a holiday party. 

Aue is not a big city.....maybe 16,000 residents....is mostly known for mining (copper and titanium) and making cutlery. 

This local Evangelical group (Lutherans) had a 'function' on the evening of the 24th....mostly designed for the lesser in society (the welfare folks).  A noble effort, to which most would agree.

The cops relate most of this story.....some type of argument came up with an older guy (in his 50s) out of Syria.  No one ever says what the argument was over, other than it involved the gift-giving moment.  Maybe the other party didn't appreciate this guy's gift, or maybe this guy was trying to trade his gift over to someone else. You just don't know how these things start up.

But at some point in this function, the older Syrian guy was kicked out.  Again, bit and pieces are left out of the story and you have to wonder if the church had a 'bouncer' or some private security folks who handled stuff like this.  I'd readily admit that it's rare that you ever get kicked out of a Christmas party event.

After this kick-out....several local Arab guys arrive at the church office.  What the cops say now is that a new guy entered into the situation....a mid-30s Iranian guy.  Maybe he was the other party who got the older Syrian all upset, but you can't be sure about this business.

So the Lutheran minister now steps into the middle of this situation....with the Iranian, and the other local Arab guys.  Maybe the minister had good intentions and felt he could moderate this, but things were a bit heated by this point, and a knife comes into play.

Yes, in the heat of the moment, it's the Lutheran minister who gets stabbed (in the gut), along with the Iranian guy.  The worst of the stabbing....went to the minister, and he was lucky enough (it appears now) to survive the episode. 

The attacking crowd?  They scattered after the event.  Based on reporting, it doesn't appear that the police have caught up with them yet. 

So you stand back to look over this landscape.  The church had good intentions, and this minister put out a lot of effort to moderate what should have been a simple but small disagreement. 

Over the years, I've come to notice that Persians (Iranians) are not exactly in the same category as Arabs (say Egyptians, Syrians or Iraqis).  It might be safe to say that insulting or upsetting by one group against the other....might be easily triggered. 

The odds that the Christmas party business will occur in 2020?  Maybe, but it'll probably involve half-dozen policemen in uniform, and I doubt if the minister will ever do any moderating on arguments ever again.