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‘Taqiyya' goes viral: Ex-Muslim Magdeburg market attacker sparks debate

Saudi dissident who described himself as an ex-Muslim ploughed a car into a German Christmas market
A police officer stands as a cyclist passes carrying a German flag during a commemoration organised by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 23, 2024. (Ralf Hirschberger/AFP)
By Firdevs Bulut
Published date: 23 December 2024 20:41 GMT | Last update: 6 days 4 hours ago

Friday’s car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the east German city of Magdeburg left five people dead and over 200 injured, according to German security officials. Dozens of those wounded suffered serious injuries.

After the attacker's identity was made public as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi dissident who described himself as an ex-Muslim and atheist, it triggered widespread discussion around his real motives.

Several right-leaning social media accounts claimed that his beliefs were being fabricated in the media which then led to the concept of “taqiyya” being talked about online.

Taqiyya is an Islamic concept meaning “precautionary denial of religious belief in the face of potential persecution”, which is to present outwardly something different from what one believes inwardly. 

Many on social media questioned whether Abdulmohsen's denial of his Muslim identity was taqiyya, sparking a debate around Islamophobia. 

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People suggested that the attacker never actually left his Muslim identity but was practising taqiyya instead. This idea was criticised by many who suggested that these characterisations only further added to the rampant Islamophobia in the world.

A number of Muslims also took to social media and argued that an average Muslim has possibly never heard of the concept before and that it is not that mainstream. 

Some social media users called out accounts giving explanations about taqiyya and why it "fits" in the case of Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, accusing them of spreading misinformation about the Islamic concept while at the same time practising taqiyya themselves. 

According to reports, Abdulmohsen shared many far-right supporting posts on social media and was highly critical of Islam. He frequently rallied against Muslim immigration into Europe and his social media posts in recent months suggest a growing hostility towards Germany and its authorities, whom he accused of trying to censor him. 

However, this did not stop an online surge of Islamophobia and misinformation about the attacker's identity. Some on social media called out the irony of Abdulmohsen being called a "secret Muslim" and practising taqiyya, even though he seemingly pandered to anti-Islam and pro-far-right ideals. 

Allegations of cleansing attacker's X profile

The debate was taken up a notch following claims that Elon Musk, the tech mogul who owns the social media platform X, deleted Taleb al-Abdulmohsen's X account, only to restore it after deleting his pro-Israel, far-right and Islamophobic posts.

Musk joined the discussion when he claimed that "only AfD can save Germany" following the Magdeburg attack. His support for Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has also ignited backlash online, including from prominent German politicians. 

Dennis Radtke, a member of the European Parliament from the centre-right CDU party, called Musk's comments "irritating and unacceptable", accusing the billionaire of meddling in Germany's election. Radtke also labelled Musk a "threat to democracy."

Musk said that the attacker being identified as an atheist "was a scam to avoid extradition", further fuelling debate. In response, many social media users brought up the attacker's previous posts on X, suggesting that he had long espoused pro-Israel and hateful Islamophobic rhetoric. 

Reports then started to emerge alleging that Musk suspended the attacker's X account "to restore it again but with deleted history and posts where he supports Netanyahu, Israel and attacks Islam."

Many social media users claimed that they could not search for the Magdeburg attacker's account for a while, and that his follower counts kept changing, suggesting interference by X. 

They also pointed out the irony of X revealing the truth about the identity of the attacker when the information was "readily available until Elon Musk disabled his account to provide damage control".

In response to a social media post showing that the attacker was Islamophobic, Musk wrote that "the legacy media lies again".

Musk did not make any statements about the alleged interference in the attacker's X account, and Middle East Eye reached out to the billionaire but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

Social media activity uncovered by reporters appeared to show that Abdulmohsen was an ex-Muslim who had posted support for a number of far-right anti-Muslim politicians such as Geert Wilders and the AfD party.

A source close to the Saudi government told AFP that Saudi authorities previously requested his extradition, while many agencies admitted they had received warnings about him.

The source said Saudi Arabia had warned Germany "many times" about Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.

Thousands of people gathered in Germany on Monday evening to voice their anger over the Christmas market massacre in Magdeburg, in what AFP reported as a commemoration organised by the AfD at the cathedral square near the site of the attack. 

Germany hosts between 2,500 and 3,000 Christmas markets each year, running from late November until after Christmas.

Since the 2016 attack in Berlin, where a man drove a truck into a crowd at a Christmas market, security has become a significant concern.

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