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The person who allegedly drove right into a crowd of individuals at a Christmas market within the east German metropolis of Magdeburg on Friday night, killing 4 folks, is a 50-year-old physician from Saudi Arabia who got here to Germany in 2006, in response to authorities.
Reiner Haseloff, prime minister of the jap state of Saxony-Anhalt, mentioned the alleged perpetrator, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, was not recognized to the police as an Islamist.
Al-Abdulmohsen’s profile on social media website X signifies that he’s a fierce critic of Islam.
German media reported that he’s an activist who helped opponents of the regime in Saudi Arabia to flee the nation and apply for asylum in Europe.
Abdulmohsen allegedly drove his black BMW X5 into the Christmas market in central Magdeburg shortly after 7pm on Friday night, knocking over dozens of individuals earlier than being arrested by police.
A video on social media confirmed officers surrounding him at a tram cease. He was seen mendacity on the bottom subsequent to his car, a rented automobile with Munich number-plates, and later being led away for questioning.
Authorities in Saxony-Anhalt mentioned 4 folks died within the assault and greater than 200 folks have been injured, 41 severely. Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the scene of the assault on Saturday.
“This can be a disaster for the town of Magdeburg and for the area and customarily for Germany,” mentioned Haseloff.
For the reason that incident, quite a lot of interviews with the alleged perpetrator have resurfaced, together with one within the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 2019 through which he described himself as “essentially the most aggressive critic of Islam in historical past”.
He has additionally expressed admiration for Different for Germany (AfD), a far-right, anti-immigration occasion which is polling second behind the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc forward of Germany’s nationwide elections in February, and accused Germany of not doing sufficient to struggle Islamism.
“After 25 years on this enterprise, you assume nothing might shock you any extra,” wrote Peter Neumann, an knowledgeable in terrorism at King’s School, London, on X. “However a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and desires to punish Germany for its tolerance in the direction of Islamists — that actually wasn’t on my radar.”
The incident comes nearly eight years to the day since 12 folks have been killed and 49 injured in 2016 on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz when an Islamic State terrorist ploughed a truck right into a Christmas market.
A lot stays unclear about al-Abdulmohsen and his doable motivation.
In keeping with German media stories, the alleged attacker was born within the Saudi metropolis of Hofuf and got here to Germany in March 2006 to review. In July 2016 he was given refugee standing after claiming he had obtained loss of life threats for turning away from Islam.
Authorities mentioned he labored as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in Bernburg, a city of 32,000 between Halle and Magdeburg.
Spiegel On-line reported that he was an activist who helped folks — girls specifically — to flee Saudi Arabia and ran an Web website offering details about the German asylum system. In 2019 he gave interviews about his actions to 2 German newspapers through which he expressed his hatred for Islam.
In a single, he mentioned he had “damaged away” from the faith in 1997.
“I discovered life in Saudi Arabia an ordeal, you need to fake you’re a Muslim and observe all of the rituals,” he mentioned. “I knew I might now not reside in concern and after I realised that even nameless activism would put my life in peril as a Saudi ex-Muslim, I utilized for asylum.”
Within the different, he mentioned he had written posts criticising Islam in an web discussion board run by the jailed activist Raif Badawi and subsequently obtained threats to his life.
“They needed to “slaughter” me if I ever returned to Saudi Arabia,” he mentioned. “It wouldn’t have made any sense to show myself to the chance of getting to return after which be killed.”
In latest months, he appeared to have moved away from activism and adopted a extremely important angle to the German authorities that fed off conspiracy theories extra usually related to the nationalist proper.
In a publish on X in November setting out the “calls for of the Saudi liberal opposition” he referred to as on Germany to “defend its borders towards unlawful immigration”.
“It has develop into evident that Germany’s open borders coverage was [former chancellor Angela] Merkel’s plan to Islamise Europe,” he wrote. He additionally demanded Germany repeal sections of its penal code that he claims “restrict . . . free speech” by “making it an offense [sic] to insult or belittle spiritual doctrines or practices”.
His X profile contains a machine gun and claims “Germany chases feminine Saudi asylum seekers, inside and outdoors Germany, to destroy their lives”.
Earlier this month he was interviewed by an anti-Islam weblog and accused the German authorities of finishing up a covert operation to search out Saudi ex-Muslims whereas granting asylum to Syrian jihadis.
