Yesterday Elon Musk lauded the German right wing (but in my opinion not radical) AfD party as the only one "that can save Germany".
A few hours later a Saudi man, living in Germany, drove a car into a crowd attending a Christmas market in Magdeburg:
Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others.
Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. officials said.
The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.
Before details were known followers of the AfD and other famous anti-immigration politicians, jumped onto the case with tirades against Muslims and immigrants.
Unfortunately for them the facts of the case were not in their favor.
The culprit is neither an Islamist, nor an illegal immigrant or asylum seeker. He in fact is a supporter of the AfD's and Elon Musk's opinions.
Dr. Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, a Saudi citizen of Shia heritage, had come to Germany eighteen years ago to learn his medical specialty, psychiatry. He had stayed in Germany and worked at a local mental hospital.
Over time he had disavowed Islam. A few years ago he had launched a web forum, WeAreSaudis.net, which helped people from Islamic countries, who were allegedly endangered for repudiating their faith, to find asylum:
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The man was well know. The BBC as well as the German broadsheet FAZ had interviewed him.
In a very long Twitter thread, written in Arabic on August 20 2024 and pinned to his account, Talib Al Abdulmohsen describes his years-long fight with other atheist activists in Germany who were also trying to arrange refuge for Saudi asylum seekers.
He alleged that some of them were actively preying on female Saudi asylum seekers who were living with them. He went to the police and filed complains with several prosecutors to get the German state to act against those he accused.
He however did not present evidence to support his claims. Asked by the police the female Saudi asylum seekers rejected to file claims.
A civil suit for defamation launched by the other activists against him was successful.
Some three years ago Taleb Al Abdulmohsen began to show signs of persecution mania. He claimed that letters from a prosecutor had vanished from his mail box. Two lawyers he had hired soon rejected to work on his cases. He started to accuse the German and Saudi government of working against him.
In mid 2023 there were first signs and warnings that he might go berserk.
He again and again filed his 'evidence' against other atheist activists to which the prosecution did not react with the urgency he had thought was required. (machine translation):
Do you know where the biggest contradiction is? If a Saudi citizen blows up a German embassy or randomly slaughters German citizens, they call him a terrorist. But when a Saudi citizen uses all peaceful means to protect himself and Saudi citizens, you find the police and the prosecution trampling on the law as if there is no law in the first place!
His outrage got ever stranger (machine translation):
This is a picture of a letter written by the Public Prosecutor the next day, in which he says, “Yesterday they brought me the file because the whistleblower (Talib Al-Abdul Mohsen) is at the service center.” Then he briefly recounts what happened between me and him, and then asks the police to investigate the matter through the file and even through social media.
But the police refused to investigate the matter!!!
After that, the prosecutor suspended the investigation again!!
What is this farce?!
If they act like this, why is it that when a Saudi citizen blows up a German embassy or randomly slaughters German citizens, they call him a terrorist??? What is the alternative to bombing and slaughtering when seeking justice in Germany? Where is the peaceful alternative?
I need to know the peaceful alternative, please tell me about it.
Taleb Al Abdulmohsen could not grasp that he simply had no legal case to make. His mind wandered off into conspiracy theories:
British Pakistani Index @PakistaniIndex – 22:29 UTC · Dec 21, 2024
(2/2) ⬆️ A video interview featuring Dr. Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, the suspect in the Magdeburg Christmas market attack, has surfaced, sparking further questions about his motives.
In the 45-minute video, published eight days before the attack on the US-based Islamophobic blog RAIR Foundation, founded by Amy Mek, Dr. Taleb claimed that the German government was conducting a "covert secret operation" to "hunt down Saudi ex-Muslims and destroy their lives" globally. He also alleged that Syrian jihadists were being granted asylum in Germany.
…
The not so peaceful alternative Taleb Al Abdulmohsen found for himself was to imitate ISIS Jihadis and to drive a car into a crowd at a Christmas market .
His rants, filings and acts do not support the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant claims Elon Musk, the AfD and other such types have made.
Talib Al-Abdul Mohsen has in fact long supported them:
Taleb Al Abdulmohsen @DrTalebJawad – 13:40 UTC · Jun 18, 2016
Ich und AfD bekämpfen den gleichen Feind um Deutschland zu schützen.
I and AfD are fighting the same enemy to protect Germany.
The anti-Muslim, pro Israel 'activist' committed a terrorist act in Europe because, he alleged, the 'left' wants to 'destroy Europe with Islam'.
There are of course a lot of political points one could make about this case.
But to me this simply looks like a sad story of someone who's mind got seriously dislocated when he moved from the strictures of his own society into a more liberal one he was unable to really understand.