BERLIN (AP) 鈥� For Ali Darwich, the was an attack on the city of Berlin and everything it stands for: its diversity, its tolerance and its belief in freedom.
On a personal level, it also was an attack on everything the Berliner embodies.
鈥淏orn a Muslim, living as a gay man, working as a police officer,” Darwich said, as he tried holding back the tears, 鈥渢his terror attack touches so many aspects of who I am.鈥�
Saturday night’s van ramming and stabbing near that left one person dead and many others wounded is believed to have been an Islamic extremist terror attack, authorities say.
The suspect in the remains at large. Authorities issued a wanted notice and warned people against approaching Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese roots, saying that he may be armed and dangerous.
On Sunday, Darwich, 34, watched sadly as more and more members of the LGBTQ+ community came to Tiergarten park, where the attack took place. They put down flowers, hugged each other and looked in disbelief at the crashed van, which still stood cordoned off behind dozens of police officers.
Like Darwich, many of them had been just hours earlier, protesting for equality and warning of an against their community.
鈥淚 was wearing my rainbow-colored shirt, carried a banner at the parade saying 鈥榳hy are some people afraid of love but not of hate?,鈥� and was about to go to an afterparty last night, when friends started calling me to check if I was OK,鈥� he said.
When he understood that there had been an attack, he canceled the party and went home filled with sorrow. But it was only after he woke up on Sunday morning that he truly grasped the significance of the attack.
鈥淚 asked myself, why as a police officer I did not run to the scene of the crash to help my colleagues. I asked myself as a gay if we will have to live with more fear now even though we are already experiencing bullying and hatred. I asked myself as a Muslim if our community will be exposed to even more racism now.鈥�
Darwich, who was born in Berlin and has Lebanese and Palestinian roots, expressed worry that the attack would polarize German society even more.
鈥淚鈥檓 actually feeling desperate this morning,” said Darwich, who also works as and posts many videos on social media that usually try to strike a positive note. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 get rid of the hatred some people feel, and it鈥檚 just getting worse and worse.鈥�
But at the same time, he said he did not want to let hate win and that deep inside he still hoped that “the people of Berlin will make the best of it, that they will work together, and that, hopefully, all of this will lead to an even better Berlin.鈥�
Others, who had come to the impromptu vigil at Tiergarten, also expressed anger and shock, but also resilience.
鈥淲e are simply stunned by what happened yesterday,鈥� said Andre Lehmann, a top official with the main national LGBTQ+ association, LSVD+. 鈥淭his suspected attack hits the heart of the queer community.鈥�
The attack 鈥渁ffects people who took to the street in Berlin this weekend to fight for their rights, their diversity and their rights, and of course with that it is a political act and does not just affect people celebrating,鈥� he said.
Lehmann said that there has been 鈥渁 tenfold increase of anti-queer hate crime in Germany within a few years.鈥� He added that 鈥渇or years, to be honest, nothing has happened and also, to be honest, for years there has been no outcry from society.鈥�
Ashley Jump, a 26-year-old U.K. resident, had traveled to Berlin for Saturday鈥檚 Pride parade but had left the celebrations before the attack. Jump, still in shock, returned Sunday to leave flowers at a memorial near the crime scene.
鈥淭hey鈥檒l never erase us, we鈥檒l never be gone,鈥� they said, their voice shivering from pain. 鈥淎s long as humanity has existed, we鈥檝e existed. And as long as humanity exists, we will exist. We will not be removed.鈥�
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