Scottish man charged for suspected anti-Muslim stabbings

A 36-year-old man was charged in connection with a string of knife attacks in Edinburgh on Friday, Scottish police said Saturday. The suspect allegedly wounded five men, who ranged from 22 to 39 years old. None of their injuries were life-threatening, but three of the victims needed hospital treatment, police said.

Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland was investigating the attacks, some of which occurred at shops around the city, police said. Police would increase patrols in the areas where attacks occurred, they said.

What do we know about the motivation for the attack? Police did not state an official motive, but one official said there was no place for what they characterized as racism or faith-based hate in Scotland. Outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also said the suspect appeared to be motivated by what he described as anti-Muslim hate.

The suspect was white and Scottish, police said. In a profanity-laced video of his arrest circulating on social media, the man appeared to tell police officers that it was time to protect the country from Muslims. He alluded to a recent U.K. independent inquiry, which concluded that hundreds of thousands of young women were raped in Britain over the past few decades—with many of the perpetrators identified as Pakistani Muslim men.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on a knifing incident in Northern Ireland involving an immigrant.