I live in Hamburg and was just at our Christmas market this week...drank Glühwein and ate Flammkuchen and watched our Santa on his sled fly over the market.

Horrified at the news of this attack on citizens and very upset that this could happen again.

Praying for all the dead and injured and their families and friends.

I‘ve never even been to Magdeburg.

I’ll probably end up getting run over by a truck in Provincetown, or some such. Nothing so poetic as being a terrorism victim in a scenic Christmas market.

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I don't know any DUers who live in Magdeburg. I'm not sure but I don't think there's a big chance. I'm still going to the Christmas market in Düsseldorf next week. Went to Aachen two weeks back. I like Christmas markets 🎄

But ours in Düsseldorf is pretty famous. There is a constant stream of buses bringing in day visitors from other parts of Germany, as well as nearby Belgium and Holland.

But Aachen is so beautiful and there's Printen everywhere. We go to the Christmas market in Düsseldorf almost every year. It's only a bit over an hour away and great. I didn't realize you were in Düsseldorf or I forgot. We're going to try the Dutch version this year too, in Valkensburg. One of our daughters is here with her husband so they wanted to compare. (We all know that Christmas in the Netherlands is not as lovely as Christmas in Germany, but they wanted to check it out.)

4:30 pm on 26-5
5 pm on 26-4

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...a partial (rough) translation (it's underlined) with the original article partially posted. Google Translate or some other online translator like DeepL can provide the rest of the translation.

it could potentially help AfD in coming elections.

Reports now say at least 11 killed. (Wrongly reported on BBC.)

I wonder what motive a Saudi Arabian physician had to do this?

Edited to add that a post downthread explains it.

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Per MSNBC.

Nt

Weird he had been there that long and got radicalized, I don't think Germany even has any troops engaged in any Muslim countries.
Pissed at previous German support of Israel maybe?

Self driving gone bad or something.

It did look like some sort of sports car.

The police instructions are (roughly) to lay there and not to move, but it is difficult to make out exactly what is being yelled:

According to initial findings, the man is a 50-year-old specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from Saudi Arabia. He was born in 1974.

He came to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg, around 50 kilometers south of Magdeburg. According to information from WELT, a police operation took place at his home during the night.

According to information from security circles obtained by WELT, the alleged perpetrator is said to have worked as a doctor in the correctional facility in Bernburg. The correctional facility in Bernburg is a facility run by the state of Saxony-Anhalt for the rehabilitation and security of addicted criminals.

He has a permanent residence permit because he was recognized as a refugee in Germany in 2016.
"As things stand, it is a lone perpetrator, so there is no further danger for the city, as we currently believe, because we were able to arrest him and all investigations are now underway," said Haseloff.

In a 2019 interview with FAZ, the perpetrator described himself as the "most aggressive critic of Islam in history". He is an atheist and has applied for asylum in Germany because he fears persecution as an unbeliever and critic of Islam in his home country. The BBC and "Spiegel" reported similarly in 2019.

He had made it his mission to show other persecuted people in Saudi Arabia a way to asylum in Germany or Australia, for example

On X, the man appears as an ex-Muslim critic of Islam. On Friday evening, he posted several videos there in which he says in English: "I hold the German nation responsible for the killing of Socrates." And: "Another reason why I hold German citizens responsible for the persecution I experience in Germany is the story of a USB stick stolen from my mailbox." Later in the video, he says: "The government is criminal instead of protecting me. The police are the criminals. In this case, I hold the German nation and the German citizens responsible."

The man's profile text states in English: "Germany is hunting Saudi asylum seekers inside and outside Germany to destroy their lives." And: "Germany wants to Islamize Europe." His cover photo shows a gun.

In June of this year, the account posted in German: "In my experience, the German police are the real drivers of Islamism in Germany. My experience is 7 years in which the police, most recently in March 2024, used dirty tactics against me and other critics of Islam to destroy our anti-Islam activism. The left are crazy. We need AfD to protect the police from them."

An X user told WELT that she had reported posts by al-A. to the platform months ago; they were then deleted. In a chat with another user, a possible attack plan by the Arab was a topic. She did not go to the police, she told WELT, but it was "clear" that "he was becoming radicalized." Now she blames herself for not having acted.

She showed a tweet from December 2023 in which al-A. claimed that the German state was persecuting Saudi Arabian refugees to destroy their lives. He promised retaliation, writing: "I assure you that 100 percent revenge will come soon. Even if it costs me my life." And continued: "Germany will have to pay the price. A huge price." The post reads like a terror announcement, but was subsequently deleted. The X user WELT spoke to kept it.

In May 2024, he posted on X in English: "I seriously expect to die this year. Reason: I will ensure justice at any cost. And the German authorities are blocking all peaceful paths to justice." At the time, he wrote in Arabic about the "implementation" of an "operation."

In August 2024, he posted in Arabic: "I assure you: If Germany wants war, we will have it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die or go to prison with pride. Because we have exhausted all peaceful means, we have only encountered more crimes by the police, state security, the public prosecutor's office, the judiciary and the interior ministry. Peace does them no good."

https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article254939378/Anschlag-auf-Weihnachtsmarkt-Arzt-Islamgegner-seit-2006-in-Deutschland-Das-wissen-wir-ueber-den-Attentaeter-von-Magdeburg.html



Eta - his X account:
https://x.com/drtalebjawad

The French painting of 1787 by Jacques-Louis David?




Or the actual 399 BC Athenian trial which I am pretty sure there were no proto-Germans at?

Crazy man says what?

Sounds like he was the opposite of most Middle Eastern terrorists, he was a devout Atheist it seems.

has inherited "responsibility" for killing Socrates. Which is damn weird (there's a lot more you'd normally blame western states for without having to go back 2500 years). He ranted at length about the German state pushing Islamism, which I reckon you do have to be at least as far right as AfD to believe.

Some Germans on social media seem to think he was addicted to something, which would be pretty ironic I suppose, since he treated drug addicted prisoners.

The AfD will disavow him in public, and love him quietly for what he did for them.

I expect the media -- especially the Nazi media -- will twist the facts of the case to paint all Saudi refugees with the same brush as this very vicious, disturbed man.