Not only did a 26-year-old suspect kill one and injure six others during a stabbing rampage in Hamburg, Germany on Friday; as the Wall Street Journal notes, the fact that the attacker had applied for asylum in the country and was rejected could revive the immigration debate in Germany as the September election approaches.

The Journal notes that the debate over immigration had largely faded into the background, as there hasn’t been a terrorist attack in Germany since December, when a man drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12. This New Year’s Eve, the mayor of Cologne, Germany ordered police to crack down rather than risk a repeat of the previous year’s debacle, when dozens of German women reported being sexually assaulted by men of “Arab or North African” descent.

Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz said in a statement late Friday that he was angry that the attacker, who was from the United Arab Emirates and couldn’t be deported because he lacked identity papers, “appeared to be someone who sought protection among us in Germany and then turned his hatred against us.”

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Hmm … a motive. What could it be?

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Tags: asylumdeportationGermanyHamburgstabbingTerrorismUnited Arab Emirates