«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.
Olaf Scholz has arrived in Magdeburg
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has arrived in Magdeburg and pays homage to the victims at the scene of the car attack on the Christmas market. Scholz, dressed in black, is accompanied by the Prime Minister of the Land of Saxony at the site of the attack. 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”, said the chancellor.
«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 coexistence, 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 perpetrator’s actions.”
The number of deaths rises, more than 200 injured
Meanwhile, the death toll from the attack that took place last night at the Magdeburg Christmas market is saluted at 5. Added to these are at least 200 injured, many of them seriously, according to the governor of the Land of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, who accompanies Scholz on his visit to the site of the attack.
A Saudi source told Reuters that Riyadh had warned the German authorities about the danger of the perpetrator of the attack on the Christmas market from Magdeburg, who according to the source had published extremist opinions on his X account. This was reported by the German media.
Furthermore, according to Bild – which cites police circles – the arrested man was apparently under the influence of drugs: a first drug test on the 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia came back positive
The Italian embassy in Berlin reports that, according to police information, among the confirmed victims in the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg there were no Italians. The embassy continues to monitor the situation of the injured but at the moment there are no reports of Italians among the hundreds of people contacted.
