The man behind the wheel of the car that drove into the crowd on Friday evening, killing at least 2 people and injuring 70, is a 50-year-old doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006. He believed he was persecuted by the German state, which he accused of wanting to “Islamize Europe”.
On Friday evening, a man drove his car into a crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in eastern Germany. According to a first report communicated by the authorities in the evening, two people were killed (an adult and a young child) and more than sixty injured. Images from surveillance cameras, widely distributed on social networks, show a black vehicle rushing at full speed among the stands of the Christmas market.
While the exact motive for the act was not yet clear, several German politicians spoke of a “attack” or a “alleged attack”an expression taken up by numerous media across the Rhine. In France, right-wing and far-right politicians, such as Jordan Bardella, have denounced a “Islamist attack”. The Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, was more reserved in an initial reaction, evoking “a terrible event, especially in the run-up to Christmas”.
A doctor specializing in psychiatry and psychotherapy
The perpetrator was arrested by German police. In front of the press, around 10 p.m., Reiner Haseloff indicated that“this is a doctor from Saudi Arabia who works in Saxony-Anhalt and who has been in Germany since 2006”. The Minister of the Interior of the Land specified that it was a 50-year-old man, living in the town of Bernburg, about forty kilometers south of Magdeburg, and who had an unlimited residence permit. . The police believe he acted alone. Relying on security sources, several German media claimed that the man was not known for Islamism and that he was born in 1974.
While he was being interviewed by the police, the German magazine Spiegel presented the perpetrator of the attack as Taleb A, a doctor specializing in psychiatry and psychotherapy, who arrived in Germany in 2006 and was granted asylum in 2016. The daily Welt revealed his full name: Taleb Al Abdulmohsen. On Liberation was able to find the profile of this man, who had published a photograph of his Saudi passport, indicating his date of birth, in 1974.
Contrary to what right-wing and far-right political figures have claimed, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen's career does not seem to point towards an Islamist profile. This Saudi from Hofuf is best known for his anti-Islam activism, a religion he rejected before becoming an atheist. In 2016, he founded the website wearesaudis.net, aimed at helping ex-Muslims, particularly women, escape persecution in Gulf countries and seek asylum abroad. A journey confirmed by investigative journalists from the German public channel WDR.
Connections with the extreme right
This activism earned him the interest of several media in 2019. During an interview, the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau retraced his journey from “political refugee” indicating that “Taleb al-Abdulmohsen has lived in Germany since 2006. He arrived in Germany as a visiting doctor as part of specialized training as a psychotherapist and later applied for asylum there, because he had been threatened with death for renouncing to Islam ». The same year, the BBC and the media Coda Story gave him stories highlighting his activism in favor of ex-Muslims, particularly women, who were seeking to flee different Arab countries.
Fiercely opposed to Islam, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen regularly took a stand against his former religion on X, but also against the German reception system. His biography on the social network indicates the following message: “Germany is pursuing Saudi women asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives. Germany wants to Islamize Europe.”
The author's X account also shows connections with the radical right. There we find numerous interactions with the AfD, the German far-right populist party, or with far-right figures such as the Austrian identitarian Martin Sellner or the British Tommy Robinson. Taleb A. also regularly reposted far-right photomontages and videos. THE Spiegel notes that several well-known officials from the AfD and its youth organization “Junge Alternative” followed his account. Eight years ago, Taleb A. wrote on Twitter (the former name of X) that he wanted to launch a project with the AfD: an academy for ex-Muslims. When another user asked him why he was considering doing this with the AfD, he replied: “Who else is fighting Islam in Germany?” In June, he retweeted party leader Alice Weidel and commented: “The left is crazy. We need the AfD to protect the police from themselves.”
Conspiratorial comments
On December 12, 2024, nine days before he hit the Magdeburg Christmas market, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen gave an interview to the RAIR Foundation, a far-right activist group established in 2016, presenting itself as “leading a movement to take back our Republic from the network of individuals and organizations waging war against Americans, our Constitution, our borders, and our Judeo-Christian values”. The site is openly opposed to Islam and Muslim immigration, which it presents as a danger. The build of Taleb Al Abdulmohsen corresponds to that of the man filmed, face down, during his arrest by the German police.
During this interview, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen accuses Germany of being more favorable to Islamist asylum seekers than to apostates from Arab countries. Worse still, he makes conspiratorial remarks, asserting that Germany, “through its secret services or other agencies […]is tracking down ex-Saudi Muslims all over the world and trying to destroy their lives”. He assures that the German state would cover the rapists of refugee women fleeing sharia, but also that it would push ex-Muslims to use drugs and lie “in order to deport ex-Saudi Muslims to Saudi Arabia for execution”. Taleb Al Abdulmohsen claims to be himself persecuted by the German state, accusing the German police and justice of having stolen his data to destroy evidence. According to him, the German government also ended the address hiding service from which he benefited, which led to the leak of his personal address.
Following the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, the RAIR Foundation's senior editor, American activist Amy Mek, wrote on X that “the Islamic attack perpetrated today in Germany is not a surprise; it is now part of daily life in an Islamized Germany”. She seemed unaware that the author of the attack was none other than the man her site had highlighted a few days earlier.
Revenge announced on X since 2023
In messages unearthed on CheckNews could not authenticate due to ongoing moderation on Taleb Al Abdulmohsen's account), the Saudi expressed his intention to take revenge in December 2023: “I assure you 100% that revenge will come soon. Even if it costs me my life. I will make the German nation pay the price for the crimes committed by its government against the Saudi refugees. he noted on December 1, 2023.
In another publication, on August 20, 2023, he noted: “Would you blame me if I randomly killed 20 Germans because of what Germany is doing against the Saudi opposition?”
Updated December 21, 2024 at 8:05 a.m. Added tweets promising action.
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