Rival protests took to the streets of Magdeburg on Monday night. The area was the scene of an apparent terrorist attack last week by a Saudi national who is now known to have been convicted of threatening attacks in the past.
Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leader Alice Weidel spoke at a rally of supporters in Magdeburg's Cathedral Square on Monday night, saying that current asylum seekers who try to kill Germans will be deported. He said it should be done. Germany must not allow a repeat of Friday's attack in which a car allegedly driven by a Saudi refugee plowed through a crowd at the town's Christmas market.
At least five people were killed and 200 injured, many seriously, when a high-performance rental car sped through the market. Among the victims was 9-year-old Andre Gleissner. Four women, ranging in age from 45 to 75, were killed.
Coinciding with Weidel's AfD conference, despite warnings about the dangers of mass immigration, counter-demonstrations broke out in separate streets, declaring “don't give hate a chance” and leading AfD to attack accused of trying to appropriate it for political gain. central to the party's overall message.
The main suspect in the attack is Taleb al-Abdelmohsen, 50, a Saudi immigrant who arrived in Germany in 2006. It is claimed that he was initially a labor migrant, studying medicine in Germany on a scholarship from the Saudi government. Al-Abd al-Mohsen later criticized his home country and denounced Islam.
New details about Al Abdulmohsen's time in Germany have emerged since the attack he is accused of carrying out, and the decision was clearly made in the face of warnings and alarming actions. When you think about it, it casts serious doubts on the judgment of the German state.
like now revealed From a German newspaper die welt“Even before Al-Abdelmohsen was granted asylum status and permission to remain in the country, he displayed erratic behavior and disturbed the peace, citing clear terrorist threats made in 2013. He was convicted of a crime.”
According to reports, Mr. Al-Abdelmohsen was in the process of becoming a medical doctor in Germany and had applied for the professional examination of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Medical Association, but was told that he needed to submit additional documents. It is reported that documents have been submitted to the association. A deadline to comply with his demands and threats. Court documents unearthed from the 2014 indictment say he told the medical association that “something bad of international significance” would happen, adding: Something similar happens here. ”
This apparent threat was made by Al Abdulmohsen days after the Boston Marathon bombing, and police were called. In court, al-Abdelmohsen claimed that he was under tremendous pressure due to the situation with Saudi Arabia, and that he had only intended to threaten negative newspaper articles about Saudi Arabia, not an actual terrorist attack.
He also accused medical association officials of being biased against Arabs and assuming he was referring to an actual terrorist attack.
The judge rejected this, saying that Al-Abdelmohsen had “above-average German proficiency and a rich vocabulary” and therefore had a good understanding of how his words would be received by others. He is reported to have said. At the time, the doctor-in-training refused to accept the court's findings, refused to accept responsibility, and even tried to take the legal officials involved to court.
Notably, despite this violation of the law, Al-Abdelmohsen later obtained a medical license as a psychiatrist in Germany and was granted asylum status in 2016.
A catalog of other indications to the authorities is now being established, including that his work as a psychiatrist was so sloppy that he was nicknamed “Dr. Google” and that he was not really qualified to be a doctor. This includes people who have encountered him professionally enough to question whether or not he is. In other cases, several individuals and the Saudi government reported him to the German state, but no action was taken.
An even more stark example of the German state's failure to prevent the deaths of five people last week is that while the Christmas market was protected from attack, one vehicle route to the area (maintained for access by emergency vehicles) was ) was not blocked. As intended, I parked a police truck across the street.
Nevertheless, German officials called for calm to ignore the criticism and even joined in attempts to blame the AfD for the attack, which was allegedly carried out by violent anti-German immigrants. Federal Criminal Police Chief Holger Munsch said the warnings security authorities received in the years leading up to the attack were not specific enough to take action.
He told broadcaster ZDF: “This man also published a huge number of posts on the Internet. He also contacted various authorities, insulted and even threatened them. This was not known to have happened. There is a completely atypical pattern here. We must analyze it calmly.”
Al-Abdelmohsen also wrote on social media in August: “If Germany wants war, we will go to war…we will slaughter them.”
The AfD denies widespread claims in the media and in left-wing political circles that al-Abdelmohsen was an ardent supporter of the party, but that he harbors hatred for Germany and Germans. A strange contradiction seems at odds with the support of German nationalist groups, given that it is said to be Nevertheless, there is at least evidence of a shared opposition to Islam and German professed opposition to Islamization.
Speaking at a protest in Magdeburg on Monday night, AfD MP Matthias Bütner had this to say about these claims: He was completely unknown to us until the day of this terrible attack. ” Buettner said the attempt to link the alleged attacker with populists was an attempt by traditional media to smear the party ahead of Germany's upcoming snap elections.
Participants at the rally chanted, “Deport, deport, deport!”
Speaking at the same “Unite in mourning for a secure future” event, AfD leader Alice Weidel said she wanted “the real picture” of the circumstances that led to the attack and that He requested improvements to prevent it from happening again. “Those who despise and even kill citizens of countries that have granted them asylum, who despise everything we stand for and everything we love, are not among us…We will ultimately I want to make a difference in this country so I don't have to grieve alongside the mothers who lost their sons in such a senseless and brutal way.”
She further suggested that the attackers may have been crypto-Islamists. Mr. Weidel called the killing: “A crime beyond the imagination of everyone here, committed by Islamists filled with hate against everything that makes us human: us as humans, us as Germans, and us as Christians. It's a crime.”
