Is called Taleb Al Abdulmohsenthe man who yesterday (20 December), at the Magdeburg market in Germany, mowed down the crowd in a dark BMW, killing at least two people, an adult and a small child, and injuring around seventy. The 50-year-old of Saudi origin, having arrived in Germany in 2006 and working as a doctor specializing in psychiatry, he was immediately arrested.
Who is
Al-Abdulmohsen, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the Saudi city of Hofuf, moved to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg. He has been recognized as a refugee since 2016. Previous media reports suggested he had pledged to help ex-Muslims, particularly women, flee Saudi Arabia after turning their backs on Islam.
Analysis of his social media reveals tweets in support of the anti-immigration German party AfD, but he has also made comments in support of Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Social media and biography
X's account bio reads: “Saudi military opposition. Germany pursues Saudi asylum seekers, in and out of the country, to destroy their lives. Germany wants to Islamize Europe.” The posts include retweets of explicit videos, including one of a young Muslim woman allegedly stoned to death “because she had an affair with a young man outside of marriage.” Another was a retweet of a post that simply read: “Can you find a positive in Islam?”
Conspiracies and right-wing parties
In videos published hours before the attack, the man claimed that German authorities had opened his mail and stolen items, including a USB stick. «I consider the Germans, as citizens, responsible for the persecution I am suffering. He also appears to be a fan of the AfD. In June, he retweeted party leader Alice Weidel, writing with typos: “The left is crazy. We need the AfD to protect the police from them.” He also retweeted right-wing extremist AfD activist Naomi Seibt with the following quote: “Tyranny is based on the docility of cowards. I choose to be courageous.”
The interview before the attack
Just five days before carrying out the attack, Al-Abdulmohsen had given an interview to the right-wing Rair foundation in which he stated: “If a Syrian citizen applies for asylum in Germany, the chance of being granted asylum is 99. 8%… While if a Saudi citizen applies for asylum in Germany, the chance is only 70% and I know personally that many of those whose applications have been rejected are ex-Muslims.”
The reactions
The identity and story of the man arrested by the police is the subject of great astonishment in Germany: how is it possible, one wonders, that a doctor, who has lived in the Federal Republic for over 18 years, employed on a permanent basis, and operating in his profession, could he have become radicalised? Also tormenting politicians and public opinion is the increase in the frequency of violent acts of a terrorist nature: the last attack on a crowd in 2024 dates back to 23 August, when a man armed with a knife attacked the citizens of Solingen, who were celebrating the 650 years of their city with a festival dedicated to diversity, in North Rhine-Westphalia. The toll was three dead and 8 injured. While on May 31 in Mannheim a 25-year-old Afghan attacked a rally of the far-right Pac Europa movement, injuring 6 people and killing an officer.
The attacks
Attacks always taking place a few weeks after important electoral events, the local elections in the east in the first case, and the European ones in the second. This time too we wonder whether the attack on the Magdeburg market will be able to increase the consensus of the populist parties of Alice Weidel and Sahra Wagenknecht. «The images of Magdeburg are frightening. When will this madness end?”, wrote the leading federal candidate of the far-right AfD on X.
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