the attacker is known as an anti-Islam atheist, close to the AfD – Radio Senise Centrale

“I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history.

If you don't believe me, ask the Arabs.”. It is a passage from an interview that the alleged perpetrator of the attack on the Brandenburg market, 50-year-old Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, originally from Saudi Arabia, gave to Faz in June 2019, republished today by the German newspaper.

Having arrived in Germany from Saudi Arabia in 2006 during specialist training, the doctor had requested asylum and he was already known as an anti-Islamic man who helped refugees who wanted to flee their home country and leave Islam.

A psychiatrist, Abdulmohsen was active in assisting refugees, but as an atheist and with an anti-Islam ideology, so much so that he was a supporter of the far-right German party AfD. These are the details that emerge about the personality of the man, of whom a photo of a Saudi passport that expired in 2012 is circulating.

Abdulmohsen also appears very active on social media: he founded and managed the website wearesaudis.net whose aim – he himself explained to the BBC again in 2019 – is to help refugees obtain asylum, particularly former Muslims who fear persecution in their country.

The writing in Arabic and English now appears on the home page: “My advice: do not ask for asylum in Germany”. In other interviews accused Germany of welcoming Islamists and refusing asylum to anti-Islamic refugees.

Some observers suggest that in Magdeburg he acted to shift the blame – and therefore raise the indignation of Germans close to the elections – on Muslims.

The 50-year-old man is also wanted in Saudi Arabia on various charges including terrorism and trafficking of underage girls, but Germany has refused his extradition.

'They wanted to massacre me if I returned to Saudi Arabia. So I decided to ask for asylum in Germany'

“I wrote against Islam on the forum of activist Raif Badawi, who is now in prison. This is why I was threatened: they wanted to 'slaughter' me if I returned to Saudi Arabia.

So I decided to ask for asylum in Germany. It would not have made sense to risk having to return and then be killed,” said Taleb Jawad Hussein Al Abdulmohsen in 2019, explaining the reasons for his asylum request forwarded to the German authorities only ten years after his arrival in Germany, which dates back to 2006 .

Once he was seen accepting the request, the alleged attacker opened his account on what was then Twitter. “Before, it was also difficult for me to talk about my non-belief in Germany.

From 2006 to 2017 I often worked with Muslims in Hamburg, I had colleagues from Pakistan and India.

I couldn't tell them that I wouldn't go to the mosque anymore. In this environment it is not as you imagine it to be in Germany: Muslims here treat people like me, who have an Islamic background but are no longer believers, without understanding or tolerance.

When we say we have left Islam, we lose our friends. Even after applying for asylum, I noticed that many of the Muslim asylum seekers that I voluntarily help in Germany think that I am a bad person because I no longer believe in them”, we read again in the interview, during which the suspected attacker also offered a detailed description of Saudi Arabia's violation of women's rights and its work to help refugees and women gain asylum, particularly former Muslims who fear persecution in their country.

“I want people to learn to think for themselves. There are many Muslims on Twitter who want to leave Islam because of me. I always write to these people: No, I will not accept you leaving Islam because of me. It should be your belief,” he explained further.

Scholz at the site of the attack

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has arrived in Magdeburg and pays tribute to the victims at the scene of the attack with the car to the Christmas market.

Scholz, dressed in black, is accompanied by the Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff.

Also present on behalf of the German government are the Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, the Minister of Justice, Volker Wissing, and the Minister of the Environment, Steffi Lemke. The leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, was also at the site of the attack.

The attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market is “a terrible and crazy action. Now it is important to clarify and do so with the utmost precision and accuracy.” the chancellor said during a press point.

“For me it is important that we remain united as a country and that we talk to each other. It is not hatred that determines our coexistencea, but the fact that we are a community that wants to conquer a common future and that we do not let those who want to sow hatred win,” added Scholz.

“We must not leave room for those who want to sow hatred, but neither should we leave the guilty unpunished. We will act with the full force of the law, precisely to protect our community and our common future”, underlined the German Chancellor, according to whom “we must understand exactly the motivations for the offender's actions”.

“I have received and felt a lot of solidarity from many countries around the world. Many people have expressed it to me personally, they have written to me and have also expressed themselves publicly. It is comforting to hear that, in the face of this terrible catastrophe, we Germans are not alone.”Scholz added.