On Friday, December 20, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen rammed his car into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing five and injuring more than 200 others. While the official motive remains unclear, analysis of his social media activity has revealed staunch anti-Muslim beliefs and an embrace of far-right political parties, specifically the Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD).
AfD is an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim political party that pushes for white nationalist policies such as “remigration,” which seeks to deport everyone of non-European descent from Germany. The party has been classified by German intelligence as having “definitely extremist aspirations,” which is reflected in their recently dissolved youth organization Junge Alternative’s (Young Alternative, JA) troublesome history of using racist chants, connections to the white nationalist Identitarian movement, and holding meetings with neo-Nazis. Similarly, AfD members have rallied alongside Identitarians at remigration demonstrations.
Racism against migrants, and specifically Muslims, has already been documented since the attack.
Abdulmohsen is a Saudi Arabian citizen who moved to Germany in 2006 after denouncing Islam. He has exhibited signs of “paranoia” while escalating his criticism of Islam and Germany’s migration policy, and now identifies as an atheist. His anti-Muslim beliefs are clear on his Twitter profile, where in his bio section he says “Germany wants to Islamize Europe.” To “Islamize” denotes the conspiratorial process of “Islamization,” a term used by anti-Muslim groups and individuals to claim that Muslims are taking over a country. It is a common concept among believers of the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
His feed features reposts of interviews by AfD’s co-chairwoman Alice Weidel discussing migrants “bring[ing] this affinity for violence” to Germany, and videos advertising anti-Muslim rallies and protests from popular Identitarian (an ideology advocating for white ethnonationalism) Twitter account RadioGenoa.
Abdulmohsen’s Twitter profile explicitly claims that “Germany wants to islamize Europe,” a talking point popularized by anti-Muslim groups (Source: Twitter)
His support for the AfD continues a troublesome trend in the party’s affiliation with radical hate. Being considered by the German intelligence services as having “definitely extremist aspirations” is the highest threat category and is based on AfD’s violations of human dignity, the principle of democracy, and the rule of law, all of which are pillars of the German Constitution.
Demonstrative of their radicalism, high-ranking members of the AfD attended a secret meeting in November 2023 featuring a lecture by Austrian Identitarian Martin Sellner outlining a plan for remigration. Also at the confab were far-right influencers, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists from the Identitäre Bewegung (Identitarian Movement, IB).
Advocacy for remigration has since permeated mainstream culture, including in gaming, sports, and social media trends like “White Boy Summer.” The successful use of social media by these racists has allowed the creation of campaigns, such as the Swiss “Vision Remigration” project led by members of the neo-Nazi group Junge Tat (Youth Action), and remigration campaigns by Grupo 1143 and Reconquista in Portugal.
The United States and Canada are not immune to this ethnic cleansing proposal either, with President-elect Donald Trump tweeting in September that he “will immediately end the migrant invasion of America” by “return[ing] Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration).” This tweet kickstarted a new wave of popularity in advocating for remigration, which recently culminated in white supremacists from the United States and Italy gathering for November’s American Renaissance conference, where they heard Martin Sellner deliver a lecture on the topic.
On December 20, the same day as the attack (but before it happened), Elon Musk, who owns Twitter and heads up the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), appeared to endorse the AfD’s hateful policies, saying “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Before the confirmation of the suspect’s identity and assuming the attack was perpetrated by an Islamist extremist, Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, quickly tweeted following the attack “They hate us. They despise our values. They kill us. And our children. We have to stand up. With perseverance and vigor, No more. Never again. This is our land, our freedom, our life. And we’ll defend it and never surrender.”
Afonso Gonçalves, one of the leaders within the Portuguese Reconquista protest group, shared misinformation that the attacker was from Syria, and proposed remigration as “an alternative to the slaughter of innocent European lives” while slamming “multiculturalism” as something that does “not compensate for the risk of suffering a terrorist attack when visiting a Christmas market.” COMPACT Magazine, a German far-right and conspiratorial outlet, blamed German “parties’ immigration policy that has laid the groundwork for Islamist acts,” assuming the attack was driven by violent Islamism even though the attacker turned out to be an ex-Muslim. Similarly, white nationalist influencer Marcus Follin (“The Golden One”) claimed that anyone “not supportive” of remigration “is complicit in the horrors of the multicultural hell-project.”
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, responding to a tweet criticising Musk’s praise for AfD, sarcastically quipped the day after the attack, “It’s so dangerous for people to control their borders. So so dangerous. The dangerous level is off the charts.” The idea of “controlling borders,” which is part of AfD’s anti-immigration platform and Abdulmohsen’s ideology, apparent from his social media activity, is often used as justification for the prevention of Europe’s “Islamization” and subsequent need for “remigration.”
JD Vance defends Musk’s comment, “Only the AfD can save Germany,” by sarcastically quipping about it being “so dangerous for people to control their borders.” The suspected attacker’s social media activity suggests he was in favor of closing borders to migrants (Source: Twitter)
Germany’s extreme right quickly organized to protest migrants, and migrant communities have warned each other about going outside out of fear of being attacked. On Sunday, December 22, a rally in Magdeburg put on by the AfD was attended by around 3,500 people, including the far right and neo-Nazis. In attendance was neo-Nazi Thorsten Heise, who has a history of violently attacking refugees, and who called for demonstrators to infiltrate government positions, such as fire departments and other positions. Attendees were documented attacking photographers and shouting nationalist slogans. Alice Weidel spoke at the event, which apparently galvanized the crowd to chant “Deport, deport deport.” Also in attendance was the Active Club East Westphalia, which exists as part of a transnational white supremacist movement (Read GPAHE’s reporting on the Active Club movement here), Identitäre Bewegung Deutschland (Identitarian Movement Germany), and the German neo-Nazi party Die Heimat (Homeland) along with their youth group, Junge Nationalisten (Young Nationalists). Martin Sellner cheered on the protest, calling it “a strong sign for remigration in Magdeburg.”
Martin Sellner calls the demonstration, which featured neo-Nazis and white nationalists, a “strong sign for remigration” (Source: Telegram)
There are some early signs of the incident leading to further mobilization. Britain First, an outfit thrown off Facebook in 2018 for posting content “designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups,” took the opportunity to share an advertisement for an upcoming “March for Remigration” rally on March 1 in Nuneaton, England, calling on their followers to “join us in Nuneaton as we march to stop the immigrant invasion.”
![bring[ing] this affinity for violence](https://ia802203.us.archive.org/34/items/abdulmohsen-radio-genoa-1/Abdulmohsen%20Weidel%201.png){kind=link}
