Ex-Muslims claim Germany Christmas market attacker isn’t ex-Muslim, warn of bigger plot

An attacker ploughed a black BMW into a crowded Christmas market in the German town of Magdeburg, killing five people and injuring 200 others. As 100 of the critically injured were battling for their lives, information trickled in about the attacker, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen or Taleb Abdul Jawad. A 50-year-old Saudi Shia refugee, Taleb worked as a doctor and claimed to be an ex-Muslim atheist. The information didn’t add up for many and a large section of ex-Muslims are claiming that Taleb wasn’t an ex-Muslim at all, and it was a big conspiracy.

The ex-Muslims are claiming that Taleb was a Shia extremist who carefully nurtured this atheist image over the years to hoodwink everyone, using the concept and licence of taqiyyah to further his Islamist goals.

Taleb’s curious case has taken experts by surprise.

“After 25 years in this business you think nothing could surprise you any more. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD (Alternative for Germany) and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar,” says Peter Neumann, a German terrorism expert.

“If anything, the Magdeburg attacker Taleb A was far right: a self-declared Islam-hating, ex-Muslim atheist, who despised German society not for being against Islam but facilitating its spread,” says Neumann.

Is Taleb really an ex-Muslim doctor backing the anti-immigration AfD and a fan of right-wing Tesla boss Elon Musk? Or is this what the attacker wants us to believe he is?

Would it be an ex-Muslim or an Islamic extremist who would target a Christmas market, and in effect Christians, ex-Muslims are asking. They are also asking if Taleb had put on the ex-Muslim garb just to facilitate his asylum or was it part of some bigger devious plan.

WHO ARE EX-MUSLIMS? WHY DO THEY LEAD A DOUBLE LIFE?

But first let’s understand who ex-Muslims are.

A section of people leaving Islam prefer being termed ex-Muslim. Unlike religions like Christianity or Hinduism, Islam punishes apostacy by death.

Hundreds of thousands of people had to risk their lives, sever ties with family and leave their countries just because they chose to leave their faith — Islam.

Some of the biggest critics of Islam have now emerged from among the ex-Muslims, who have gone and questioned the clergy on certain religious practices. Ex-Muslims support one another and have built a big community, thanks to the anonymity and safety provided by the internet.

Millions of ex-Muslims have renounced their faith clandestinely and live a double life even without letting close family members into this secret.

For Taleb, claiming to be an ex-Muslim might have helped.

FOR TALEB, BEING CALLED EX-MUSLIM HELPED

Taleb, the Christmas market attacker, is a Shia Muslim who fled Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and sought asylum in Germany in 2006.

There were charges of terrorism, rape and smuggling girls from the Middle East to EU countries against Taleb in Saudi Arabia, according to reports.

Taleb said he was an ex-Muslim atheist, a factor that could get him persecuted in Saudi Arabia. He was given refugee status in 2016.

There were dozens of people, including ex-Muslims, claiming that Taleb used the ex-Muslim tag to get asylum.

“Taleb Al Abdulmohsen is not an atheist. He is a Shia extremist. Just because a Muslim self identifies as an atheist or claims to have converted to Christianity doesn’t mean it’s the truth,” said Mahyar Tousi, founder of Yousi TV, an online alternative news platform.

Despite requests by Saudi Arabia for Taleb’s extradition, Germany refused to hand him over to him, fearing for his wellbeing there. This, even as Taleb repeatedly kept attacking Germany and its police force on social media.

German authorities didn’t act despite being alerted by a woman that Taleb was threatening to carry out a terror attack.

That could all be because of the image he developed over the years in Germany. Even the big media were deceived by his guile.

HOW TALEB BUILT EX-MUSLIM PERSONA OVER THE YEARS

On social media, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen regularly shared posts on anti-Islam themes and engaged with other ex-Muslims.

In 2019, the BBC featured him in a documentary titled ‘Helping ex-Muslims flee the Gulf’. It focused on how a website set up by him was helping ex-Muslims “flee persecution in their Gulf homelands”.

In the video, Taleb said how he, at times, worked for 16 hours a day to help ex-Muslims escape Middle East countries. He said 90% of the requests for help were from women.

“I am history’s most aggressive critic of Islam. If you don’t believe me, ask the Arabs,” he told Germany’s FAZ newspaper, highlighting his ex-Muslim credentials.

Though he interacted with the mainstream media, he declined interview requests from Brother Rachid, a popular ex-Muslim Christian influencer, twice in 2018 and 2020.

Brother Rachid has been interviewing ex-Muslims for two decades and is known to ask tough questions.

“Each time, he cited a temporary medical condition, claiming his face was swollen as the reason he could not appear,” said the TV host and author.

EX-MUSLIMS QUESTION CHRISTMAS MARKET ATTACKER’S CLAIM

A section of ex-Muslims, including those who interacted with Taleb, alleged that the Saudi attacker used the atheist image to hide his nefarious actions.

“He acted ex-Muslim on the outside, while in DMs he threatened ex-Muslims, especially Saudi women who had fled,” said Ali Utlu, a Germany-based ex-Muslim atheist.

Utlu said that Taleb had also repeatedly attacked him “because I wanted nothing more to do with him after 2018” and that he blocked him on X in May.

Yasmine Mohammed, a Canada-born ex-Muslim activist and author, said she knew Taleb for years from online interactions, and he didn’t seem “stable” to her.

“He [Taleb] obsessively went after an ex-Muslim Saudi woman. He wanted my help in ‘exposing’ her and turned aggressive when I wouldn’t comply. Friends have shared with me that he was targeting other Saudi female activists as well,” said Yasmine Mohammed, a Canada-born ex-Muslim activist and author.

“There is suspicion now that he was actually working with Saudi authorities to bring down Saudi female activists. And although I cannot confirm this obviously, I will say that this theory aligns with my experience and exchanges with him,” added Yasmine.

Ex-Muslims like Yasmine are worried that the Christmas market attack might bring unwarranted scrutiny on ex-Muslims and make their path to asylum difficult.

Taleb supported the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right political party that has a tough anti-immigration stance. This, despite Taleb being a refugee and trying to get other ex-Muslims into Germany.

That Tayeb’s use of the ex-Muslim tag could be part of a bigger conspiracy was voiced by people like Mahyar Tousi of Yousi TV who said it was a clear case of Islamic taqiyya or taqiyyah.

DID CHRISTMAS MARKET ATTACKER USE CONCEPT OF TAQIYYAH?

Iranian-German entrepreneur Maral Salmassi posted a video explainer trashing “claims made by the German press” that Taleb was an ex-Muslim atheist, a fan of the AfD and Tesla boss Elon Musk.

“While he may have spread this misinformation himself, it aligns with the practice of Taqqiye, an Islamic doctrine that permits lying and deception to advance Islamic objectives,” claimed Salmassi in the video.

Britannica explains taqiyya or taqiyyah as an Islamic practice of “concealing one’s faith and forgoing ordinary religious duties under threat of death or injury to oneself or one’s fellow Muslims”. It says its basis is found in the Quran.

“It has since been practised mostly among minority groups, particularly those of the Shi’ite (Shia) branch,” says Britannica.

Taleb was a Shia Muslim.

It is possible, suggest the ex-Muslims, that Taleb was acting as a mole in their community all these years, and, as one of the last acts, launched the terror attack at the Magdeburg Christmas market in a bid to endanger the entire community.

Ex-Muslim influencer Brother Rachid gave another recent example where a Muslim had claimed to have converted to Christianity but the truth was revealed after his death.

“Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, an Afghan migrant, applied for asylum in the UK, claiming a false conversion to Christianity. He even underwent baptism to bolster his claim,” said Rachid.

“After being granted asylum, he was implicated in multiple crimes, including sexual assaults and a chemical attack on a woman and her children,” he said.

Ezedi’s body was found in the Thames in February, weeks after the chemical attack.

“Following his death, it was revealed that a mosque held an Islamic funeral for him, casting further doubt on the authenticity of his claimed conversion,” said Brother Rachid, adding, “This doesn’t mean that there are no real conversions.”

It’s not without reason that anti-terror expert Peter Neumann is surprised by the Magdeburg Christmas market attacker’s profile. The case of Taleb Al Abdulmohsen or Taleb Abdul Jawad is a curious one. There is an image that Taleb has been projecting, which has been accepted by German officials but is being junked by ex-Muslims who knew him for years. Whatever the truth, it needs to be ascertained.