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 🙏

His twitter account terrible and has hinted it for a while. Surprise why police didn’t do anything despite he had been reported

The UK’s national broadcaster is also accused of downplaying the severity of the terror attack in Magdeburg city of Germany

Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen had openly posted threats of violence before killing 2 people and injuring 60 others.

What makes you think that Christians are being targetted, when you look at this event?

An extremely unpleasant, hate-filled man has committed an awful, terrorist act. His social media has a lot of far-right, Islamophobic, conspiracy theory related hate in it. We should be united in condemning his acts and having compassion and respect for the innocent people whose lives have been lost or changed forever by his actions, rather than attacking each other and other minority groups.

I suspect he targeted a place he knew would be busy, filled with people who would not be able to defend themselves or fight back against him, because he's (like so many who try to commit such acts) a coward at heart. Utter scum.

According to his twitter comments he hated his adopted country due to how they treated refugees! Germany takes millions but obviously not good enough treatment for the evil man who thinks that means it's OK to kill lots of people nothing to do with decisions being made.

A nutjob who slaughters innocent victims for having the temerity to go out and enjoy themselves at a Christmas market is given a job tending to mentally ill, vulnerable people. What is wrong with liberals in Europe? It's not surprising that people turn to the hard right or populists.

What do you think the hard right would have done differently when it comes to refugees?

"What makes you think that Christians are being targetted, when you look at this event?"

Errr that it was an attack on a Christmas market?

In the same way I would assume that say an attack on a Diwali festival was predominantly (but not exclusively) aimed at Hindus.

Funny that the Saudis warned the Germans he might go on the rampage and were ignored. There's also a recording of a Saudi official telling the US all of the Saudis involved in 9/11 were on their terrorist list but the US had them listed as "dissidents." Not that I'm a fan of Saudi Arabia but.....

So to clarify, you think this was an attack on Christians because it was at a Christmas market?

Are you confident in that opinion?

Yeah, funny you have to keep pointing out this was a CHRISTMAS MARKET.

Some people would say that many people attend Christmas markets. I know I have attended one in our town, and I am not a Christian. Some of my Muslim friends have attended as well.

So how confident are people who are saying that this was an attack on Christians because it was at a Christmas market?

There is nothing religious about a Christmas market in my experience

What would the hard right have done differently you ask? Not let them in most likely.

Oh FFS. How many non Christian countries have Christmas markets?

Re hard right like Victor orban etc Hungary, Romania all taken a very hard line against refugees and apparently Poland hasn't taken many

Not many.

But I am still not sure why you think Christians were deliberately being targetted?

If God forbid there was a terrorist attack on a UK Christmas market, would you say that was a deliberate attack on Christians?

Or would you be more confident in saying it was an attack on people in the UK where there was going to be a lot of people?

@cakeorwine

"So to clarify, you think this was an attack on Christians because it was at a Christmas market?

Are you confident in that opinion?"

It would be fair to state that an attack on a Christmas market would be predominantly (but not exclusively) an attack on people of a Christian faith of varying degrees of religious commitment.

To give another example if there was an attack on a Diwali festival would you say that this was predominantly (but not exclusively) an attack on people of a Hindu faith of varying degrees of religious commitment. Or is that different?

And why do we have bollards around them? Has anyone joined up the dots or is the faux ingenuousness going to continue?

We have bollards because terrorists are likely to attack crowded events and it's a good way to reduce the risks

Other venues have security in place - I was at a recent concert and we had our bags searched.

Crowded events are targets

Iran - http://goftarnews.com/tehran-christmas-shopping-market-2024/4/

Dubai - https://whatson.ae/2024/12/the-best-christmas-markets-to-visit-in-dubai-2024/

Kuwait - https://kuwaitofw.com/christmas-in-kuwait/

Japan - https://tokyocheapo.com/entertainment/christmas-markets-in-tokyo/

Indonesia - https://www.agoda.com/travel-guides/indonesia/from-bali-to-jakarta-christmas-celebrations-in-indonesia/

Probably many more.

I am just trying to understand the reasoning of people who say that Christians are being targetted because of this tragic event.

Germany is a Christian country.
It has Christmas markets.
A terrorist targetted this event.
So it is an attack on Christians who are being deliberately targetted.

Is this what people think who say that this man targetted Christians?

I totally agree that the majority of people attending Christmas markets are not particularly religious Christian and many would describe themselves as atheists. However the majority attending are of a Christian background

What I am struggling with here is that if there was a similar attack on say an Eid festival or a Diwali festival then the majority of people would assume (correctly imo) that the religion of the victims had something to do with the motive. Now of course they could be wrong and that the attacker on further investigation had different motives, but it would not be an unreasonable assumption to start with. Just because some Christians attend a Diwali festival does not mean that the festival is not a Hindu festival and predominantly attended by Hindus.

Maybe you haven't been paying attention to what Islamists have been saying and doing to Christians during the various conflicts in the Middle East over the years and what they say after they commit a terrorist outrage on European soil about "Crusaders" and other such religious nonsense.

No, wrong type/sect. He objected to the wrong types being let in.