He relocated to Germany in 2006 to specialize in psychotherapy, applied for political asylum, which was granted in 2016, even though the Rostock District Court[de] had fined him for "disturbance of public peace through the threat of criminal acts" in 2013.
In 2006, at age 32, Abdulmohsen relocated to Germany to specialize in psychotherapy. He later applied for political asylum, because he was threatened with death for renouncing Islam.[17][18]
In 2016, Germany granted him political asylum, citing concerns over his safety and rights if he was returned to Saudi Arabia. Even though Abdulmohsen is wanted by Saudi Arabia on charges related to terrorism and human trafficking, specifically allegations of facilitating the trafficking of individuals from Saudi Arabia and Gulf states to the European Union, the German government refused to extradite him, citing a lack of due process in Saudi Arabia.[19]
Since March 2020, he worked as a doctor in the Federal Penitentiary at Bernburg, a state prison for drug rehabilitation. Since the end of October 2024, he was no longer on duty due to holidays and illness.[20]
Abdulmohsen's qualification as a health professional was questioned by colleagues, but the hospital management took no action. He had in several cases prescribed false and dangerous medications to patients, whose lives were only saved by attentive nurses. Patients had refused to be treated by him for his shortcomings in the German language, which led to misunderstandings. For his consultation of a search engine for every diagnosis, coworkers told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung he had been nicknamed "Doctor Google".[21]
On 20 December 2024, Abdulmohsen allegedly drove a vehicle while under the influence of drugs[22] into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing at least 5 people, including a nine-year-old child,[23] and injuring over 200 others.[24][25] He was arrested at the scene.[26]
Personal life and political views
Abdulmohsen lived in Bernburg, about 50 kilometers south of Magdeburg and has been described as an introvert with limited social interactions.[14] Saudi dissidents who knew him personally describe him as isolated and aggressive.[3]
He came to Germany in March 2006 as a visiting doctor during his specialist training as a psychotherapist.[27][28][3]
From 2011 to the beginning of 2016, Abdulmohsen lived in Stralsund, where he completed parts of his specialist training. In 2013, a few days after the Boston Marathon bombing, according to the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Ministry of the Interior, he threatened the Medical Association of the state with an attack in the course of disputes over the recognition of examination results for his specialist training. This was followed by a search of his apartment, during which electronic media were also checked. However, the investigators found no evidence of "real preparation for an attack". In the same year, he was sentenced by the Rostock District Court to 90 daily rates of ten euros each for threatening criminal offenses. In January 2014, he is said to have appeared at the local office and asked for financial support. He is said to have threatened both an attack and suicide. The police then sought him out for a threat assessment. In September 2015, he is said to have called the German Chancellery and a month later the judicial authorities, complained about the Rostock verdict and became abusive.[29][30]
In media appearances, Abdulmohsen has presented himself as an ex-Muslim activist against Islam.[3]
In February 2019, Der Spiegel reported on him, that he would – through his web forum wearesaudis.net and X (then known as Twitter) – help others escape from Saudi Arabia to Germany.[31] In March 2019, Abdulmohsen gave interviews to the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in which he was presented as an escape/migration helper.[28][8] In these he said about himself, "I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history. [...] There is no good Islam."[8] Also in 2019 Abdulmohsen appeared on the BBC showcasing his website intended to help asylum seeking apostates, "especially from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region".[32] He founded an online platform to help Saudi Arabian citizens apply for asylum in Germany and claimed that Germany was giving asylum to "Syrian jihadists."[33]
The Atheist Refugee Relief had originally considered working with Abdulmohsen to coordinate aid for atheist refugees from Saudi Arabia. However, this cooperation failed.[34] The Secular Refugee Aid stated that in 2019, members of the refugee aid organization filed a complaint against A. "after the most vile slander and verbal attacks," which led to a legal dispute lasting several years, which A. lost in the Cologne Regional Court in August 2023. At the time of the attack, the case was on appeal before the Higher Regional Court of Cologne.[35][36][34] The German-based Atheist Refugee Relief said that the alleged perpetrator was not a member of the organization and claimed that he made many false "accusations and claims" against them and their former board members. It also distanced itself from Abdulmohsen "in the strongest terms" and added that its members filed a criminal complaint against him following “the most foul slander and verbal attacks" in 2019.[37]
The Saudi monarchy is said to have warned German security authorities about Abdulmohsen at least three times between November 2023 and December 2024, but the warnings were ignored,[38][39] after he posted extremist views on his X account threatening peace and security.[40][41] The Foreign Intelligence Service of Germany had received a report from Saudi Arabia that Abdulmohsen had announced something big in Germany as early as 2023 and are said to have followed up on this tip.[30][33] In the fall of 2023, a woman who had been in contact with Abdulmohsen via the Internet tried to warn the police in Berlin that Abdulmohsen wanted to kill 20 Germans. However, she sent her email to the police in Berlin, New Jersey.[42]
In February 2024, the Berlin Public Office accused him of abuse of emergency calls, because he had placed an emergency call for the fire brigade in the building of the Berlin police without an emergency. A criminal order was issued with 20 daily rates at 30 euros each. He did not appear for the hearing on 19 December, one day before the attack.[43]
In an X post from 5 December 2024, Abdulmohsen declared that Angela Merkel deserved the death penalty for "her secret criminal project of Islamizing Europe"[44] and criticized her policies that according to him would have seen German women face similar restrictions as seen in Afghanistan. He also reposted "claims from Alice Weidel warning of a future under Sharia law in Germany, framing her fight as a defence against Islamic dominance."[33] Saudi Arabia issued charges against him for alleged terrorism and facilitating the smuggling of women from Gulf countries to Europe. Despite these allegations, Germany granted him asylum in 2016 and refused to extradite him to Saudi Arabia.[33]
On X, he had posted[when?] an AR-15–style rifle (Juggernaut Tactical JT-15) with a US flag as a profile picture and conspiracy theories such as "Germany is persecuting Saudi asylum seekers inside and outside Germany in order to destroy their lives" and "Germany wants to Islamize Europe."[b] Several well-known officials of the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and its right-wing extremist youth organization Junge Alternative followed his X account.[27] Furthermore, he expressed[when?] his sympathy on X for the AfD and dreamed of a joint project with the far-right party: an academy for ex-Muslims.[48] He also made a website that tried to help ex-Muslims gain asylum in other countries, and he considers himself an atheist as of 2019.[4]
In a 45-minute video interview on the anti-Islamic US blog, the RAIR Foundation,[49] eight days before the attack, Abdulmohsen spread theories that the German state is conducting a "covert secret operation" to "hunt and destroy the lives" of Saudi ex-Muslims around the world, but at the same time Syrian jihadists are receiving asylum in Germany.[27] In the interview, he said that he was not a right-winger, but a leftist, but at the same time explained that as a leftist he had come to the conclusion that the left were the "worst criminals on the planet".[49]
In May 2024, Abdulmohsen wrote, "I seriously expect to die this year. The reason: I will ensure justice at any cost. And the German authorities are hindering any peaceful path to justice." On the day of the attack, he posted more videos on his social media profile on X. A few minutes before the attack, he posted more videos. In one of them, he said, "The police themselves are the criminals. In this case, I hold the German nation, I hold the German citizens responsible for what is in store for me." In another one, he said: "I hold the German nation responsible for the killing of Socrates."[why?] 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."[51][20] He also said: "The police themselves are the criminals. In this case, I hold the German nation, I hold the German citizens responsible for what is in store for me."[51][44]
Abdulmohsen's X account was focused on anti-Islam themes and criticism of Islam while he congratulated Muslims who left the religion. He also described himself as a former Muslim and criticized German authorities for failing to combat the “Islamism of Europe" and supported the AfD. He was described as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland and he appeared to be focused on his theory that "German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers."[37][33] He "had been sharing Islamophobic views for years" according to Euronews. German media has identified an account on X, where he argued that "Germany wants to Islamize Europe".[33] Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that the authorities can confirm that the suspected perpetrator was "evidently Islamophobic".[7]
On 21 December 2024, chairwoman Mina Ahadi of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims stated that A. was "no stranger, because he has been terrorizing us for years."[52] "He has had two lives," Mina Ahadi told the German Press Agency. "If you have been dealing with him for a long time, you have a strange feeling. He has literally terrorized members of the association."[36]Ex-Muslims who had known Taleb, including Mahyar Tousi, founder of Tousi TV, and Iranian German businessperson Maral Salmassi, claimed that he was a Shia extremist who pretended to be an atheist in order to gain asylum, engaging in the practice of Taqiyya in order to hide his true beliefs. Ex-Muslim activists Ali Utlu and Yasmine Mohammed stated that Talha had been threatening ex-Muslims, while Brother Rachid, who often interviews ex-Muslims, stated that he would have often make up excuses to avoid giving him an interview.[53]
According to information from several public broadcasters and private media in Germany, people have reported to the police several times because of threats of violence from Abdulmohsen.[16]
Der Spiegel reported that Elon Musk was one of his role models and that Abdulmohsen declared "If you listen to someone like Tommy Robinson or even Elon Musk, and even if you're ignorant of the process of Islamization, you'll think they're conspiracy theorists. But I can say from experience that anything Robinson says, what Musk says, what Alex Jones says, or anyone who is labeled a radical or a right-wing extremist by mainstream media—they're telling the truth." He also wrote, "Me and AfD are fighting the same enemy to protect Germany." Germany's FAZ described him as an anti-Islam activist and told Newsweek that in a 2019 interview with him, he declared that he was "history's most aggressive critic of Islam" and to "ask the Arabs" if they doubted him. An unnamed German official cited by The Washington Post stated that "an X account appearing to be affiliated with the suspect contained content condemning Islam" and described him as a Saudi dissident.[5]
Notes
↑ Arabic: طالب جواد العبدالمحسن or Taleb Al-Abdalmuhsin
Magdeburg is the capital of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. Non-Muslims must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination and arrest. While no law requires all citizens to be Muslim, non-Muslim foreigners attempting to acquire Saudi Arabian nationality must convert to Islam. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim.
Islam's significance in Germany has largely increased after the labour migration in the 1960s and several waves of political refugees since the 1970s.
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia has mainly been attributed to Islamic extremists. Their targets included foreign civilians—Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy—as well as Saudi Arabian civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995. Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of funding terrorism in other countries, including Syria.
Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia. As the "home of Islam" where the prophet of Islam lived and carried out his mission, the kingdom attracts millions of Muslim Hajj pilgrims annually, and thousands of clerics and students who come from across the Muslim world to study. Approximately 100% of its citizens are Muslim and most of its large population of foreign workers are as well. Hanbali is the official version of Sunni Islam and it is used in the legal and education systems. The Basic Law of Saudi Arabia states that it is the duty of every citizen to defend Islam.
Germany has experienced significant terrorism in its history, particularly during the Weimar Republic and during the Cold War, carried out by far-left and far-right German groups as well as by foreign terrorist organisations.
On 24 July 2016, fifteen people were injured, four seriously, in a suicide bombing outside a wine bar in Ansbach, Bavaria, Germany. The bomber, identified by police as Mohammad Daleel, was a 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State. He was the only fatality in the incident. According to German authorities, Daleel was in contact with the Islamic State and had been planning more attacks before his backpack bomb exploded accidentally.
On 16 December 2016, a bombing plot was uncovered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The 12-year-old German-Iraqi boy, who was reported to be the perpetrator, was directed by an ISIL supporter to build two nail bombs and plant them at the local Christmas market and near a shopping centre.
The Zürich Islamic center shooting occurred on 19 December 2016 in the Zürich Islamic Center in central Zürich. Three people were injured when a gunman opened fire in the center, though all survived. The perpetrator, who had stabbed a former friend to death the day prior to the shooting, died by suicide after fleeing the scene.
On 19 December 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured. One of the victims was the truck's original driver, Łukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the passenger seat. The truck was eventually stopped by its automatic brakes. The perpetrator was Anis Amri, an unsuccessful asylum seeker from Tunisia. Four days after the attack, he was killed in a shootout with police near Milan in Italy. An initial suspect was arrested and later released due to lack of evidence. Nearly five years after the attack, a man who was critically injured during the attack died from complications related to his wounds, becoming the 13th victim. As of December 2023, this attack remains the worst Islamist terrorist attack by number of casualties in German history.
On 11 April 2017, the tour bus of the German football team Borussia Dortmund was attacked with roadside bombs in Dortmund, Germany. Three bombs exploded as the bus ferried the team to the Westfalenstadion for the first leg of their quarter-final against Monaco in the UEFA Champions League. One of the team's players, Marc Bartra, and a policeman were wounded, but the strengthened windows of the bus prevented casualties.
Ali Amjad Rizvi is a Pakistani-born Canadian atheist ex-Muslim and secular humanist writer and podcaster who explores the challenges of Muslims who leave their faith. He wrote a column for the Huffington Post and co-hosted the Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment podcast together with Armin Navabi.
Rana Ahmad or Rana Ahmad Hamd is the pseudonym of a Syrian women's rights activist and ex-Muslim born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who fled to Germany in 2015, where she currently resides. Her flight, assisted by Atheist Republic and Faith to Faithless, was partially documented in the Vice News documentary Leaving Islam: Rescuing Ex-Muslims (2017). Her 2018 German-language autobiography Frauen dürfen hier nicht träumen, also translated into French, and became a Spiegel Top-10-best-seller. In 2017, Ahmad founded the Cologne-based Atheist Refugee Relief with the goal of providing 'practical assistance to refugees without religion and to improve their living conditions through political work.'
The Halle synagogue shooting occurred on 9 October 2019 in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and continued in nearby Landsberg. After unsuccessfully trying to enter the synagogue in Halle during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the attacker, 27-year-old Stephan Balliet, fatally shot two people nearby and later injured two others. Federal investigators called the attack far-right and antisemitic terrorism.
Ex-Muslims are individuals who were raised as Muslims or converted to Islam and later chose to leave the religion. These individuals may encounter challenges related to the conditions and history of Islam, Islamic culture and jurisprudence, as well as local Muslim culture. In response, ex-Muslims have formed literary and social movements, as well as mutual support networks and organizations, to address the difficulties associated with leaving Islam and to raise awareness of human rights issues they may face.
Atheist Refugee Relief is a non-governmental organisation founded in Cologne, Germany in 2017 in defence of the human rights of apostates and nonreligious people. The board consists of Rana Ahmad, Mahmudul Haque Munshi and Stefan Paintner. Further groups and associations were formed in Munich (2019), Austria (2019), Hamburg (2019), Stuttgart (2020) and Switzerland (2020).
The situation for apostates from Islam varies markedly between Muslim-minority and Muslim-majority regions. In Muslim-minority countries, "any violence against those who abandon Islam is already illegal". But in some Muslim-majority countries, religious violence is "institutionalised", and "hundreds and thousands of closet apostates" live in fear of violence and are compelled to live lives of "extreme duplicity and mental stress."
Events in the year 2024 in Germany.
Amy Mekelburg, known online as Amy Mek, is an American activist, critic of Islam, and social media influencer, mainly on Twitter. Her full identity was not known, until she was exposed, by some accounts doxxed, by HuffPost journalist Luke O'Brien in 2018, at a time when she had amassed over 200,000 followers.
On 20 December 2024, an SUV was driven into a crowd at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, resulting in the deaths of 5 people and injuries to at least 235 others. The driver of the car, allegedly 50-year-old anti-Islam activist Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, was arrested at the scene. German authorities have described the suspect as an Islamophobe. Investigators continue to search for a motive, which remains unknown.
1 2 WDR/NDR, Manuel Bewarder, Florian Flade, Martin Kaul, Amir Mussawy, Sebastian Pittelkow und Katja Riedel. "Das wissen wir über den Täter von Magdeburg". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 23 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ "German Christmas market attack kills five, injures 200". A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker after he posted extremist views on his personal X account that threatened peace and security.
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