On the evening of 21st of December, Germany witnessed a heart horrifying terrorist attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg. A 50 year old Saudi citizen named Taleb A intentionally plowed his high speed car into the crowd who went for a Christmas holiday shopping. The car attack took away the lives of two people which included a toddler and left more than 60 people severely injured. The authorities investigating the incident revealed that the Saudi citizen was driving a rented BMW equipped with explosives. As per authorities the motive behind the incident has not surfaced clean but speculations highlight religious terrorism.
According to reports, Taleb A is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who has lived in Germany since 2006, receiving refugee status a decade later. He was born in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia and he had been residing in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, according to officials. He remains on Saudi Arabia’s wanted list for charges including terrorism and human trafficking, but Germany has refused his extradition. Taleb is a former Muslim and outspoken critic of Islam, is a supporter of Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right German party known for its anti-immigration stance. Born in 1974 in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia, Taleb faced restrictions on expressing his atheist beliefs in a nation where Islam is the sole recognized religion, according to BBC reports. After relocating to Germany, he established a website dedicated to assisting ex-Muslims fleeing Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.
World leaders condemned the horrifying incident and expressed solidarity with the victims. Similarly, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the violence and extended support to the German population but refrained from addressing the suspect’s nationality.
This is probably the first of the incidents. Similar incident horrified the streets of Germany in 2016 in Berlin when an extremist drove a truck into a Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. And therefore people are suspecting that the recent attack has come up with the similar motivation.
Reiner Haseloff, the governor of Saxony-Anhalt, assured residents there is no ongoing danger. German police officials categorically stated that Taleb was a lone attacker and therefore there is no more threat to public safety after his arrest. As investigations into the Magdeburg tragedy continue, authorities are working to determine whether the suspect’s background or affiliations influenced his actions.