Five people were killed and scores more injured when a car plowed into revelers at a Christmas market in Germany.
A man taken into custody at the scene is reportedly a critic of Islam and AfD supporter.
After the deadly attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on December 20, a suspect was arrested almost immediately.
On the evening of the attack, Saxony-Anhalt’s state premier, Reiner Haseloff, announced that the suspect was a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who had been living in Germany for 18 years.
He likely acted alone when he drove through the crowd.
Several German media outlets identified the man as Talib A.* They reported that he specialized in psychiatry and psychotherapy and was practicing in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg, where the attack occurred.
Although raised as a Muslim, the Saudi native left his religion and became an outspoken critic of Islam, particularly regarding its treatment of women in his home country.
A Trail of Hate on Social Media
Describing himself as a former Muslim and a Saudi dissident, Talib A. was an active user of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), where he had around 47,000 followers.
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He frequently posted or re-posted content centered on anti-Islam themes, often criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who chose to leave it.
In a 2022 interview with the BBC, Talib A. mentioned that he established a website called “We Are Saudis” (wearesaudis.net) to assist Saudi activists and ex-Muslims in escaping from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. He stated that he was often approached by younger Saudi women seeking to flee their families.
However, some other dissidents reportedly found him too intense and chose to distance themselves from him.
His views often veered into Islamophobia, and he frequently echoed far-right rhetoric. He criticized Germany’s migration policies, claiming they allowed too many Muslims into the country, and blamed Angela Merkel, the former chancellor of Germany, for facilitating this situation.
In December, he shared a video about Afghan women being banned from medical universities by the Taliban, commenting, “had Merkel achieved her plan, this would have been Germany right now.”
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