It is a feeling of bewilderment, more than anger or indignation, and even less of revenge. Germany has more questions than answers after the attack that left at least five dead and 200 injured at the Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday, one of these cities where many feel protected, in the comfortable province, from the convulsions of the world. What went wrong? And who was the man who drove a car into people who were eating sausages or drinking the typical mulled wine? It all happened in less than five minutes, which took his powerful BMW to cross the busy Town Hall Square after 7:00 p.m., where the wooden booths and Christmas decorations are installed on these dates. What did this Saudi man want who claims to hate Islam and who in an instant blew up the peace of a city with a long history of bloody wars and apocalyptic bombings?
“These things seemed so far away, and now they are so close,” says Silvia, a 57-year-old woman who has come to leave a candle in front of the Johanniskirche and under the severe gaze of the statue of Luther, who preached in this temple in 1524. and converted the city to Protestantism. “It’s hard to believe.”
In Magdeburg, this Saturday, a thick silence reigned. The thermometer read seven degrees, but the humidity of the Elbe penetrated to the bone. The wooden stalls were still in the market and the Christmas lights were still on as if nothing had happened, but the square was cordoned off and no one was moving between the sausage and wine stalls. A spectral landscape. In the shopping centers on the wide avenues of the city rebuilt in the Soviet style of East Germany after the bombings of World War II, customers were scarce. It was not the atmosphere of Christmas Eve. In a demonstration in the urban center, xenophobic proclamations were heard. Meanwhile, a hundred meters from the market, at the entrance to the Johanniskirche, a small crowd was forming in front of the numerous candles and flowers at the entrance to the church. A mother hugged her son. An uncle and his nephew, modestly linking arms, placed two roses and gathered before this spontaneous memorial. The conversations were whispers.
“Not only adults fell. Children also fell,” reflects Domenique, the nephew. And Frank, the uncle, claims: “You have to think about the victims, not the perpetrator.”
The perpetrator’s name is Taleb al Abdulmohsen, he is 50 years old, he is a Saudi citizen, he has lived in Germany since 2006 and has held refugee status since 2016. The first news of the attack and the arrest of its perpetrator, on Friday, caused many to feel shocked. logical association of ideas. It would not have been the first Islamist attack on a Christmas market, “one of the last popular symbols of Christians,” wrote Ulf Poschardt, editor of the conservative newspaper Die Welt. The usual voices immediately came out. “When will this madness end?” said Alice Weidel, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right party that can become the second parliamentary force in the early elections in February. In the Parliament of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, whose capital is Magdeburg, it has been this way for years, and insecurity, immigration and terrorism can now take over the campaign agenda. Elon Musk, master of social network X and Trumpist magnate, called for the resignation of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Marine Le Pen, leader of the French extreme right and candidate to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the Elysée, was more emphatic: “Once again, Islamist barbarism sows terror in the heart of Europe. “This act of war against a symbol of our civilization shakes hearts.”
But a few hours later, when the names and surname of the detainee were announced, it became clear that things were more complicated. Taleb al Abdulmohsen is Saudi, but he broke with his religion, to the point of declaring in 2019 to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history.”
Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services had alerted German authorities about Al Abdulmohsen, reports the Reuters agency. His profile on the social network X included a photo of an automatic weapon and a drawing of his face along with the following description: “Saudi military opposition. Germany persecutes Saudi women asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives. “Germany wants to destroy Europe.” He spread complimentary messages about Musk and Alternative for Germany on the same network, forcing Weidel to point out that the suspect was not a member of the party. Also a photomontage of an activist known for organizing public Koran-burning demonstrations in which former Chancellor Angela Merkel was seen holding a sign that said: “I destroyed Europe.” He was surely referring to Christian Democrat Merkel’s decision in 2015 to welcome one million refugees. In another message, Al Abdulmohsen fired: “If the death penalty is reinstated, [Merkel] “He deserves to die.” And on the same day of the attack, he wrote, in a crescendo conspiracist, on the borders between paranoia and subversion: “I consider the German nation responsible for the murder of Socrates.” He defended the AfD and the extreme right, but also the refugees; He declared himself an enemy of Islam and carried out a massacre in a Christian market.
Prosecutor Horst Nopens, at a press conference in Magdeburg, said that the detainee had spoken out about the motive for the crime: “Dissatisfaction with how refugees from Saudi Arabia are treated.” He is investigated for five murders and 200 attempted murders. “We don’t know if it is a terrorist attack,” added the prosecutor.
The method of the attack – a car against a Christmas market, exactly like the one in Berlin in 2016 – is sadly typical. The author’s profile, totally atypical.
“There are not enough elements to understand this case,” Olivier Roy, a leading specialist in Islamism and other radicalisms, admits in an email. “Be that as it may,” he adds, “it is a lone wolfatypical, probably with a psychiatric dimension. And it is an unsophisticated attack, without logistics and with an improvised weapon: the car.”
The den of the lone wolf Until Friday, it was number 45 Christianstrasse in Bernburg, 50 kilometers south of Magdeburg. It is a narrow sloping street in a residential neighborhood of this municipality of 30,000 inhabitants dominated by an old chemical factory and an air of an old GDR industrial city. Taleb al Abdulmohsen lived on the ground floor of this two-story house with an attic, and his name is still registered on the intercom and mailbox, while the police block the entrance and search the interior. Less than a kilometer away is the clinic where he worked on the edge of the city, between fields and single-family houses. Some neighbors saw him coming and going. According to Der Spiegelin 2013 he was convicted of “disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit criminal offenses.” Several local media indicate that he had been off work for some time. Now there are more journalists than neighbors on Christianstrasse and some look out the window and from there they all respond almost the same: “I didn’t know him.”
A woman who identifies herself as Petra and who is walking down the hill is more explicit: “When I passed him, I said hello.” And he adds: “These are things that happen. “It’s politics that’s to blame.” When asked why politics, he answers elusively: “No, I won’t tell you this.” And he walks away laughing.
