Ghosts of Christmas Past

German police said they had the man implicated in the deadly attack at a Christmas market in eastern Germany over the weekend on their radar, even as they remain baffled as to his motive, the Wall Street Journal reported.

On Friday, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi dissident, allegedly rammed his vehicle into a holiday market in the city of Magdeburg, killing five people – including a 9-year-old child – and injuring more than 200.

Authorities arrested him at the scene.

Al-Abdulmohsen, who arrived in Germany in 2006 seeking asylum, was a psychiatrist who until recently was working in Bernburg, just south of Magdeburg. He was known for his anti-Islamic views and inflammatory online posts, including supporting far-right causes and the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

A self-described member of Saudi Arabia’s “liberal opposition,” he described himself in a 2019 interview with the conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “the most aggressive critic of Islam in history.”

He ran a website helping Saudi dissidents navigate asylum processes and had been vocal against German policies, accusing authorities of “Islamizing Europe.”

Despite multiple warnings from Saudi authorities – four times between November 2023 and September 2024 – about his behavior and potential danger, German officials reportedly dismissed the concerns, according to the Financial Times.

Germany did not investigate the suspect because security officials believed the Saudis were targeting dissidents who abandoned Islam, an act known as apostasy which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

Analysts said the suspect’s profile – a Saudi ex-Muslim with far-right leanings – defied typical security agency expectations, potentially explaining why he had not been closely monitored despite earlier warnings, NBC News added.

In recent years, Germany has faced a series of deadly attacks: In 2016, an Islamic State supporter rammed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 49. Earlier this year, four people were killed in two Islamist-related attacks.

Friday’s attack comes as Germany faces political and economic headwinds.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government collapsed in November, prompting early elections set for February.

The country is also grappling with a profound economic slump, fueling public discontent and elevating the AfD in the polls. Migration and law and order have emerged as central campaign issues, with the AfD blaming the attack on Germany’s asylum policies, the Washington Post wrote.

On Saturday, Scholz visited Magdeburg vowing to leave “no stone unturned” in investigating the crime. He urged unity, warning that Germany “must not allow those who wish to sow hate to succeed.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced heightened security measures at Christmas markets across the country.

International leaders expressed solidarity, with French President Emmanuel Macron recalling the 2016 Nice truck attack, which killed 86 people.

Friday’s attack took place during the same day a French court convicted eight people for their roles in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty. Paty was killed by an Islamist extremist for showing his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on free expression, the Associated Press reported.

Paty’s murder shocked France and reignited debates over freedom of expression, secularism, and religious extremism.