Long-time anti-Islamism activist Michael Stürzenberger, the main focus of the bloody knife attack in Mannheim on Friday, has long had a target on his back—put there not only by extremist Islamists, but also by the German state. The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV)—the country’s domestic spy agency—has monitored the campaigner for the past ten years, and a state-funded Bavarian anti-extremism organisation has called Stürzenberger a conspiracy theorist for warning about political Islam getting a foothold in Germany.
