Related: REPORT: Migrant Men Practiced ‘Taharrush’ On German Women in Cologne Sex Attacks.
Taharrush, also known by the longer name taharrush gamea, has been particularly prevalent in Egypt, where large gangs of men assaulted female journalists during protests in Tahrir Square.
The concept was previously obscure but is now gaining momentum in the German media – and across Europe – as a key way of explaining why so many men thought it was fine to commit mass sexual assaults.
Major German news websites have already begun using the term in headlines.
Also: Cologne Sex Mobs ‘Co-ordinated and Planned’, Europe-Wide Phenomena Possibly Linked.
“For such a horde of people to meet and commit such crimes, it has to have been planned somehow,” Heiko Maas, the federal justice minister and a social democrat told Bild am Sonntag.
“No one can tell me that this was not co-ordinated or planned.”
Police began examining internet forums and chat groups last week on the working assumption that it is unlikely hundreds men just met by accident. Pieces of paper have since been found on some of the suspects, with Arabic and German translations of phrases such as “big tits” and “I want to f*ck”, indicating a degree of planning.