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 🙏

@cakeorwine

"Which of those profiles do you think is more likely?
Targetting German people because he was angry at the way he thought Germany was treating refugees

or

Targetting Christians - and I am not sure if you have said why he might have wanted to target Christians"

I don't think anyone will ever know his motives. But a lot of what is being said in the MSM simply doesn't add up.

He is supposedly anti immigration yet ran a website assisting Saudi women seeking asylum in Germany.

He is supposedly anti immigration"far right " based on what exactly- some tweets agreeing with the AfD?

He is supposedly "anti Islamist". Firstly what exactly is that? Disagreeing with Islam in general- in which case why target a Christmas market and not a mosque. Or anti extremism- in which case why did the Saudi Government claim that he held extremist views himself.

Personally I think that just as parties such as the AFD will gain politically from trying to portray this as another Islamist attack then the current government in Germany will gain politically from trying to portray this as an anti Islamic attack or "far right".

Either way there are hundreds of families in Magdeburg who will have had their lives changed for ever due to the actions of this man.

They have not called it a terrorist attack because they don’t know his motive yet I do think some people don’t understand this that just because people kill people using a car doesn’t mean it’s a terrorist attack to be a terrorist attack that has to be political or religious et cetera motivation for that.
But this is what I found out. I think he’s quite a confused person. He’s an ex Saudi Arabia Muslim that has lived in Germany for two decades now actually liking people like Tommy Robinson who talk very opposing stuff about Islam because this guy is now an ex Muslim.
I would imagine maybe he’s a bit confused with himself and as somebody that’s a professional psychology psychiatry guy I don’t know what his motivations are maybe he had some sort of mental breakdown who knows? Maybe he’s just evil who knows? I hope they will find the truth but too much speculation is going on.

However, Quent explains that this particular case becomes more complex as further details emerge on the background of the attacker.
Investigators have found that the perpetrator had tried to build connections to far-right organisations in Germany and the UK, including Germany's far-right AfD party as well as Tommy Robinson, the founder of the far-right English Defence League.
"So it's a very complicated case we are facing here. And it's not an Islamist attack. It's quite sure, a kind of anti-Islam. More like far-right attacks than any other, if you want to search a kind of context on the political radar," Quent says.

Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he had been living in Germany for two decades.
Taleb’s alleged X account is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam themes and criticism of the religion while sharing congratulatory notes to Muslims who left the faith.
He also described himself as a former Muslim.
He was critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat the “Islamism of Europe.”

Cake with all due respect , you are very repetitive & behaving slightly erratically with your questioning. And I repeat I believe Christians were targeted are he attacked a Christmas market.
3000 Christmas markets take place across Germany annually during the 4 weeks of advent prior to Christmas day on which Christians will celebrate the birth of Christ.

Many , many posters have already told you why they "think' this. Your constant questioning won't sway them towards thinking otherwise. It was a direct attack on Christmas, at Christmas time , at a Christmas market. It could not be more obvious.

So you know everything before the experts then because they haven’t said that they don’t know the motivations yet and they also said he wasn’t even a Muslim he was an ex Muslim so ended there you’re assuming a lot of stuff because of your narrative

Cake, why on earth does this distinction matter to you so much?

I am sure you have your reasons for believing that man was motivated to target Christians.

I don't know why he might have wanted to target Christians. I am unclear if you know why he wanted to target Christians but clearly you believe he had a reason to target Christians.

I think with elections coming up in February the media are trying to very quickly paint an image of him as far right & anti immigration .

This absolutely does not add up as he was an immigrant himself & actively helping Saudis gain asylum in Germany , he even had a website to assist them. Doesn't sound very anti immigrants to me.
The media have their own agenda.

Does it matter when people post comments such as Christians are being targetted on social media?

I think it matters when people post opinions such as "a group is being targetted" as it creates division. It's easy to get divided and I think that is useful to ask people to see what makes them have such a belief.

Well people have already been "thinking" it was an islamistic attack just based on his background. Turns out it's more complicated than that.
Anyway the AFD has already capitalized on the attack by staging a protest.
Absolutely disgusting.
But it seems if the attacker wanted to incite hatred against Muslim immigrants He certainly reached his goal.

You don't know he was a doctor in Saudi. You don't know what his life was like in Saudi. You don't know that all doctors are treated well in Saudi. In fact I'd say you know very little about Saudi. Start by checking out the strict rules and punishments.

You are wrong to think that having an "excellent profession" means you would never need to be a refugee. It's not based on economics you know.

Plus your continued use of the term expat alone shows a degree of racism.

No it doesn't. Many Brits living in Australia, Dubai, Singapore, Saudi Arabia.or South Africa call themselves ex pats .

Saudi Arabia is a country that is oil rich, has not suffered any major wars like Afghanistan , Syria, Palestinian etc.. how was this man granted asylum & why did he want to assist many more Saudis seek asylum in Germany if he was apparently anti immigration? It doesn't add up.

My sister in law worked in Saudi on & off thoughout the 90s & 00s. She loved her time there, made a fortune, had a wonderful standard of living with a big expat community.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriate

There is a definition for you . It is not a racist term!

He was anti Muslim, he against what he saw as the islamaphication of Germany/Europe, he is one of those people who thought Muslims were trying to take over Europe, who thinks Muslims all want Europe to be under Sharia law. His tweets indicated that he wanted to punish Germany for being complicit in what he say as the Islamaphication of Germany.

I understand that some people are having a really hard time wrapping their heads around the fact that their biases instantly went to this is an Islamic terror attack and it appear to be more of a far right anti Muslim attack(he seems to have attacked Germans because he was angry that he thought they were allowing the islamification of Germany, that's why he didn't attack a mosque or another Muslim place). Time will tell if first appearances are true or not but the desperate twisting some people are doing to try and make it fit their biases is really showing them up.

So why do you think Syrians chose to rampage through a Christmas fair the other day waving Syrian and Palestinian flags?

So if he was so anti immigrant why had a website assisting Saudis gain asylum in Germany 🤣🤣

The media is not at all to be trusted on culture war issues such as immigration, diversity, gender, muslims etc. They have a very clear and obvious bias. They rarely lie but are masters of misinformation. Remember Southport and the "Welsh choirboy" who turned out to be an al-Qaeda reading African? They start all this "reported to be far-right, islamophobic, syrian-refugee" nonsense to distract from the main issue which is that he had no good reason to be in Germany, and if had not been allowed to stay in Germany, hundreds of German families would not have had their lives ruined this Christmas, and he is part of a problem that has made all Europeans less safe and lowered our quality of life. That is the conversation they don't want us to have.

Do you think there is a difference between people who are immigrants and people who need to claim asylum because of persecution?

I suppose people could be against immigration but still see the need for people to seek refuge and asylum because of persecution.

Definitely not especially with the elections coming up in Germany in February. The left wing media are desperately trying to twist this. When it suits the media they want twitter shut down as they say it is spreading disinformation. Now we are supposed to take it as gospel!

Excellent post, BadgerInDungarees.

He is anti Muslim. Anti Muslim society like Saudi. He wanted to save women from what he sees as the evil Saudi Muslim country.

How is this so hard for you to grasp?

And political oppresion is still a thing in Saudi Arabia. As is unequal treatment of women hence the female refugees.
Also the experience of being an expat in Saudi Arabia is very different from actually being a Saudi Arabian.

So what do you believe about this attack then?

I think you are saying that this person was a Muslim who targetted Christians at a Christmas Market and that the main stream media are lying to us and saying that he was actually anti immigrant, anti Islam and a supporter of AFD as they are worried about the elections in Germany.

Where did I say he was a Muslim? You know atheists hate Christians too.
Quote me please where I said he was a Muslim? He was apparently an ex Muslim according to the media who is now allegedly an atheist. Also I can't understand why they are trying to convey he was anti immigrants when firstly he is one & secondly he was actively assisting Saudis gain asylum in Germany through his website..
Why do that if you are anti immigration?

So you don't think he did this because he was a Muslim.
Fair enough.

So you think this man hated Christians for some reason so he targetted Christians at a Christmas Market and that the main stream media are lying to us and saying that he was actually anti immigrant, anti Islam and a supporter of AFD as they are worried about the elections in Germany.

There is virtually no actual evidence of this man's motivation incl why he targetted the market

What there is, are screenshots of his now deleted SM posts and the opinion of one of the prosecutors at a press conference yesterday [who interestingly said his motive might never be known]

None of the above small amount of information involves a hatred for Christians, Christmas or Christmas markets - that's just speculation based on individual beliefs both here and on SM more generally