Christmas market attack in Germany tonight😥 article linked

[Treetops11]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/dec/20/germany-christmas-market-madgeburg
I have attended many Christmas markets over the years. They are so crowded especially at the moment as German children finished school for the Christmas holidays. Frightening, my prayers are with all the victim's 🙏

Why would ‘they’ pretend this was a far right attack rather than an Islamist attack when all previous Islamist terrorist attacks (9/11, Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan, etc) have been acknowledged as such? There isn’t some kind of conspiracy to pretend Islamist terror attacks don’t exist. If the authorities are saying this is a far right attack then it probably is.

It’s also not the first far right attack either (2011 Norway)

Just honestly wondering why British who move to Saudi for work have always been called expats .. how can a doctor from the same country who moves to Europe be called a refugee? What am I missing? Saudi was always fine to travel to, my sister in law worked there for 6 years on & off in the 90s & 00s..

Atheism is illegal (for Muslims) jn SA and punishable by death.

So how does it explain all the other Saudi refugees in Europe yet the British who move to Saudi are expats .

I agree. The previous Christmas market attack in Berlin was an Islamist terrorist attack and named as such.

Surely it's positive news that this seems to be a lone wolf attack and not linked to a terrorist group.

@Treetops11

There aren't huge numbers of refugees from SA in Europe? They are people who flee claiming persecution.... that's why they are refugees. Most Saudi Arabians emigrate through different routes - ie. on work visas or student visas. Similar to expats.

If it’s Christians that are being attacked - why is there high security around Hyde Park for Winter Wonderland?

Perhaps it’s because it’s large gatherings that are the target?

Yeah because you automatically think of someone as being white when you stress that they are saudi/ex-muslim.
Desperately clamouring to place the blame on foreign terrorists because the idea that it could be home grown terrorism is horrifying.

472 people from Saudi Arabia fled in 2023 and applied for asylum in other countries, according to UNHCR data. This corresponds to approximately 0.001% of all residents. The most common destination countries have been the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. The most successful have been the refugees in Canada and in the Netherlands.

It would seem that most of them are women who flee with allegations of domestic abuse and oppression.

I'm prepared to believe that there are Saudi dissidents who are persecuted. But why would such a dissident go on to perpetrate a heinous crime against the country that had given him asylum? In fact, why would anyone who has been granted the very generous asylum of a country like Germany perpetrate such a heinous crime?

Well that's what the authorities will be trying to figure out? It's been just over 24hrs, give it a bit of time.

Why would anyone kill and injure a group of innocent people including a child. It’s just awful and inexplicable.

Hopefully they’ll get more answers but it is reassuring that he isn’t linked up with any known terrorists and although he was a follower of this far right party, they not suggested to be involved in this attack.

How many lone wolves make a up pack🤔

Playing devil's advocate again. I do not feel safe now in my home country anymore as men are allowed in my personal female only spaces. My rights as a female are being violated due to males demanding access to my private spaces.
Do I have grounds to seek refuge in a country that does not have a gender recognition act & will keep males out of my personal spaces?

Are you keen to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia ? It's illegal to be trans there it might suit your needs.

Would they accept my reasoning that my rights as a female are being violated due to males allowed access in my private spaces. Would they grant me asylum on those grounds & that I feel very unsafe now as a women in my own private designated spaces.. I think I most definitely have a case

mollyfolk · Today 22:44
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Why would anyone kill and injure a group of innocent people including a child. It’s just awful and inexplicable.

Because they are a terribly flawed, sick person.

@Treetops11 They aren’t a signatory of the refugree convention and they make their asylum decisions on a case by case basis. So they don’t have clearly defined criteria - give it a shot?

generally no that doesn’t fit the criteria for a refugee.

Thank the lord you live in Western Europe and you have a wide range of countries you can emigrate to via a work visa.

@Treetops11
Just thinking about this again, I'd say Saudi Arabia would be delighted that western women are trying to claim asylum there. They are always getting stick about their appalling record of women's rights and this would be a great PR exercise for them. You could be a poster girl for them.

Of course in reality none of us would want to be at the mercy of the Saudi authorities. Your question is an insult to the many brave women's rights activists there who have faced torture for their peaceful activism and the women who flee and seek Asylum elsewhere because they have no control over their own lives.

You should honestly be ashamed of yourself.

Tbf, the statistics on religion need some more context.
In Germany, catholic and lutheran etc Christians who are registered as church members (through baptism) have to pay a church tax (for admin, maintentance of buildings, income of the priests and other personnel...) which is directly taxed at the source from your income. You cannot opt out unless you officially leave the church, that means you are not counted as belonging to your church anymore in these statistics.
There were also many abuse scandals of both denominations, which happened in decades past but have started to emerge for some years now.
Both cost of living and the scandals have moved many people to leave even though they still have faith and consider themselves Christians.

In Eastern Germany, formerly socialist Germany, religion played a lesser role to ideology, and it seems the socialist state discouraged people from joining the church. When you grow up without religion, it is probably not easily added to your life as an adult, so in Eastern Germany, religious affinity is lower, too. I don't know how successful church attendance was after the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the other hand, the Eastern German churches (which were permitted but under observation) had a part in the demonstrations against the socialist government before the fall.

However, only looking at the statistics without the context could give an incomplete picture.

On the question of bollards protecting the markets: these were there and have been for years, but in this case in Madgeburg, they had one route without bollards for emergency services and firefighers. The officials said this route was protected, too, just not with the same physical barriers. It wasn't explained what these other measures were.

Why? I genuinely fear for my safety. I feel my rights as a female are violated as males are demanding access to my safe spaces. You can not tell me how I should feel. I feel scared, violated & unsafe in spaces that had once been designated to me as a female.

No-one but you is trying to 'blame foreign terrorists'? Very odd post.

There may be a lot of Christians in that crowd. Germany is 52% Christian with about 36% who have no religion. It may well be that the 52% Christian masks a range of belief and adherence to Christianity.

So you are saying that you agree that it an attack on a German population - and that because the German population is 50% Christian, then it's also an attack on Christians as well.

In that case, I presume 9/11 was also an attack on Christians as the USA is 67% Christian?

How about the 7/7 bombings? The UK was 70% Christian in the UK in 2001 so I presume those bombings were supposed to be an attack on Christians.

It's an attack on people where maybe half of them are Christians. It could also be attack on white people, couldn't it?

Then apply for asylum somewhere? About 600 Americans a year apply for asylum around the world so I can't see why you couldn't. If it looks like something you would be interested in the go and try it. Why are you whining about it on your thread about multiple people being killed though? That seems pretty crass