Media blame car for Christmas massacre in Germany
Legacy media outlets are blaming a car for ramming into a crowd of people on Friday night at a Christmas market in Germany.
Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, a Muslim doctor from Saudi Arabia, drove the vehicle into the crowded market in Magdeburg, killing a nine-year-old boy and four adults and leaving at least 40 people critically wounded. Over 200 more people were injured.
When news media reported the story, however, their headlines suggested the car was self-driving.
“Car driven into crowd at German Christmas market,” reported the BBC.
“At least one dead after car plows into German Christmas market,” read a CNN headline.
“A car has driven into a group of people at a Christmas market in Germany,” the AP reported.
“Car drives into crowd at Christmas market in Germany: Police,” wrote ABC News.
“Dozens feared injured after vehicle plows into crowd at Christmas market,” said an NBC News headline.
An Islamophobic atheist or devout Muslim?
In their reports, legacy media are using some of al-Abdulmohsen’s social media posts to try to paint the killer as an Islamophobic atheist ex-Muslim who supported Elon Musk.
Iranian dissidents, however, say this narrative is false. Several took to social media to state that Al-Abdulmohsen is in fact a devout Shia Muslim who used Islam’s taqqiya doctrine to pretend to be non-Muslim. Taqqiya is the principle that a Muslim is permitted to deceive others — including outward denial of his faith — if he believes he is under threat.
Video footage of Al-Abdulmohsen’s arrest after the massacre appears to show him shouting “Allahu akbar” as he surrendered.
Germany’s involvement
It has since been reported that Germany knew Al-Abdulmohsen was a threat but protected him for “humanitarian reasons.” Saudi Arabia warned German officials three times that he was a threat to Germany’s national security and requested he be extradited to his home country. Germany refused, however, saying Al-Abdulmohsen deserved protection as a migrant. Nevertheless, police say Al-Abdulmohsen may have committed the attack because he is unhappy with how Germany treats migrants.
German police were also alerted to statements Al-Abdulmohsen made on social media last year in which he vowed to slaughter “20 Germans.” Authorities collected screenshots of the posts but took no other action.
But while media outlets have been soft on Al-Abdulmohsen, they have heavily criticized Germans who protested the attack. German news publications have criticized the “right-wing extremists” shouting “disgusting slogans” such as “deport, deport, deport” and “Anyone who doesn’t love Germany should leave Germany.”
