Who Is Taleb? Ex-Muslim, Atheist And Staunch Islam Critic Led Germany’s Christmas Market Attack

Last Updated:December 21, 2024, 11:45 IST

Germany Attack: Two people were killed while 60 others were injured as a car rammed into crowd at Christmas market. Authorities called it a deliberate attack and arrested Saudi national.

Germany Christmas Market Attack: Nearly 8 years after 13 people were killed in the German capital city of Berlin due to a truck attack on a crowd in 2016, a similar incident has jolted the country as a car drove into a large group of people at a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday evening, leaving at least 2 dead and dozens of others injured.

A toddler was among the two confirmed dead while the authorities have not ruled out more fatalities as around 15 people are seriously injured. They called the incident a deliberate attack on the German population.

Chaos spread in the market as the speeding car rammed into the people who were knocked down to the ground and others were seen running for shelter to save their lives.

A driver, a Saudi national, was arrested in connection with the attack that took place at around 7 pm when the market was buzzing with holiday shoppers.

The incident was on the lines of an attack in 2016 in Berlin where a driver rammed a truck into the people, in which 13 people were killed.

Who Was The Suspect Of Christmas Market Attack?

1. According to the officials, the attacker is a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia, identified as Taleb A who practices medicine in Bernburg, nearly 25 miles south of Magdeburg.
2. He is a consultant in psychiatry and psychotherapy, The Guardian reported.
3. He started living in Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status in 2016.
4. Taleb is a former Muslim who is now a staunch critic of Islam. He supports Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party in Germany, which takes an anti-immigration stance.
5. The attacker was born in Hofuf city in Saudi Arabia in 1974. However, he was not allowed to express his atheist views in the country where Islam is the only religion, BBC reported.
6. He then moved to Germany where he opened a website to aid ex-Muslims fleeing Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries, BBC reported.
7. Taleb is also on the wanted list in Saudi Arabia on grave charges such as terrorism and smuggling of girls from the Middle East to European nations. However, Germany has not allowed his extradition to Saudi so far, according to reports.
8. He got a ‘permanent residence permit’, according to interior minister Tamara Zieschang.
9. He had rented a BMW car just before the attack and did not have known Islamist ties, The Guardian reported.
10. According to the reports, the police believe to have recovered explosives from his car.
11. “As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know, there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters, AP reported.
12. The motive of the driver behind the attack is yet not clear.
13. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a statement, condemning the attack and expressing solidarity with the German population. It “affirmed its rejection of violence”, however, did not mention anything about the arrested man, a Saudi national.
14. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the reports from Magdeburg suggest that “something bad is about to happen”.

Location :

Berlin, Germany