A hate crime or simply a crime?

(July 13, 2009) – An Egyptian Muslim woman was killed in a German courtroom by a man convicted of insulting her religion.

The brutal killing of the pregnant Marwa Al Sherbini, 32, raised a lot of questions about the rise of right wing fanatics in Europe.

Al Sherbini was stabbed 18 times by a German man of Russian descent, formally identified only as Axel W, last week as she was about to give evidence against him as he appealled against his conviction for calling her a “terrorist” for her wearing the headscarf (hijab).

While the German authorities focus on court security, we ask, what about the underlying problem – the motivation behind the attack.

Al Jazeera’s Inside story discusses the motivation behind the killing of Marwa al-Sherbini.

Inside Story discusses with guests: Maleiha Malik, a professor of law at King’s college London, and author of “Anti Muslim prejudice: past and present”; Sulaiman Wilms, a media spokes person for European Muslim council and editor of the German language newspaper and Douglas Murray, a director of the centre for social cohesion, and author of “Neoconservatism: why we need it”.