When I heard about the deadly attack on the Christmas Market in Magdeburg, Germany on Friday, I immediately thought about the ISIS attack on the Christmas Market in Berlin nearly 8 years to the day and thought the incident in Magdeburg might have been committed to commemorate the previous attack. The 2016 attack claimed the lives of 12 people.
Friday's attack in Magdeburg claimed the lives of 5 people including a 9-year-old boy. Although the suspect in the Magdeburg attack is a Saudi national identified as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, he is not a member of ISIS or any Islamic terrorist organization. Indeed, the suspect fled Saudi Arabia for Germany in 2006, renounced Islam and spent his time trying to help others flee Saudi Arabia. However, his social media posts had grown much darker accusing the German government of promoting Islamism and expressing support for the far-right AfD (as has Elon Musk). The suspect wrote on X earlier this year, “German terrorism will be brought to justice. It’s very likely that I will die this year in order to bring justice.”
Well, the suspect survived the attack and will now stand trial for his actions. It would seem that al-Abdulmohsen is much closer in inspiration to Anders Behring Breivik, the man responsible for killing 77 people in a terrorist attack in Norway in 2011. Killing people gathered in a Christmas market is wrong whether it is in name of Islam or in the name of denouncing Islam.
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