When confronted by horrific scenes such as those witnessed in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday, where five people were killed and about 200 injured in a car-ramming attack, one of the first questions many people rightly ask is: why?
Certainly, the indiscriminate nature of the violence is shocking and strikes at people’s sense of security. Among the dead is a nine-year-old boy; many people who were out shopping and socialising before Christmas will be left with life-changing injuries and lasting trauma. The attack was roundly condemned by numerous countries like the UAE as well as the Muslim Council of Elders. However, at this stage, much about the attacker’s exact motives remains unknown.
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Police and ambulance crew at the site of a suspected Christmas market attack in central Germany. Getty Images -
A man drove his car into a crowd of revellers at Magdeburg's central town hall square, killing at least two people and injuring more than 60. AP -
Emergency personnel at the Christmas market treated people for injuries. Reuters -
Police officers guard the Christmas market crime scene. AP -
Police said the vehicle drove at least 400 metres across the Christmas market. AP -
The sounds of sirens from first responders at the Magdeburg site clashed with the market’s holiday mood. AP -
An ambulance races to a hospital in Magdeburg. AFP -
The Madgeburg Christmas market after the crash. Reuters -
The sounds of sirens from first responders at the Magdeburg site clashed with the market’s holiday mood. AP -
Rescuers and ambulances near tents housing injured people. AFP -
A police officer stands guard at a cordoned-off area near the Christmas market. AP -
Rescuers hug each other at the scene. AFP
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor, identified by German police as Taleb A, is the main suspect. The long-time German resident has a history of troubling online outbursts; analysis of social media accounts allegedly held by him suggests he was a vocal critic of Islam who sympathised with the German far-right. After he was arrested at the scene, police said Taleb A was acting alone. But what pushed him to carry out such a heinous attack is still unclear.
Although the police investigation is at an early stage, there are worrying suggestions that Saudi warnings about the suspect went largely unheeded by German authorities. The warnings to Germany had reportedly been made several times since the suspect left Saudi Arabia in 2006, but a report in German outlet Welt claims a 2023 risk assessment by German investigators concluded the man posed “no specific danger”.
The uncertainty has not deterred some from indulging in speculation or seizing the opportunity to accrue political capital. A group of about 1,000 people gathered in Magdeburg on Saturday night, with some brandishing a large banner with the word “remigration” written on it. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed – without evidence – that the 2015 wave of immigration into Europe is responsible, adding that the EU’s leadership wants such attacks “to happen to Hungary, too”.
Many questions hang over this case, but it is clear that security and intelligence co-operation regarding such problematic individuals will have to be reviewed and improved. Not only do the general public have the right to life in safety, but Germany’s Arab and Muslims communities – the vast majority of whom are law-abiding residents – will have to be protected from the hostility emanating from right-wing hardliners.
This is true also of such communities across Europe. Many of these people have fled war and instability at home to begin new lives in peace and security; others were born in Europe. However, collectively they are often the target of pernicious political campaigns and unfairly lumped together with the tiny groups of extremists who have carried out attacks much like that seen in Magdeburg at the weekend. Immigrants to Europe want and deserve security as much as host communities do. It is up to the authorities in Germany and elsewhere to make sure that happens, and up to everyone influencing the situation to be weary of stoking discrimination, or worse, encouraging outright violence.
