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On Dec. 20, German officials' worst fears were realized. Each year, crowded Christmas markets, bustling with holiday cheer, are anything but jolly for German officials, as they are faced with the daunting tasks of markets’ security and crowd control. Unfortunately, the markets’ popularity also makes them prime targets for attacks aimed at causing mass casualties. This tragic reality unfolded when a man drove his car into an extraordinarily crowded Christmas market, leaving at least five dead and over 200 injured — 41 critically. The attack marked Dec. 20 as the date of the deadliest attack Germany has suffered in years.
German police soon identified the driver: a doctor from Saudi Arabia by the name of Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.
And, as they always do, Islamophobes pounced on this tragic moment to push their bigoted agenda. Except this time, they had a powerful ally— Elon Musk.
As the richest man on Earth, owner of the mammoth social media platform X, and a right-hand man to President Donald Trump, all eyes have been on Musk recently, with many even declaring him “President Musk” and an oligarch due to his recent controversial involvement in Congress’ votes on spending plans.
Musk originally positioned himself as a centrist, claiming to transcend the partisan lines that enabled radical ideologies on both the left and the right to gridlock our political system. Slowly but surely, however, as all who claim to be neither left nor right do, we have seen the centibillionaire shift from his brief attempts of nonpartisanship, to his right-wing dog whistles, and ultimately, to blowing hundreds of millions of dollars to tip the scales toward Trump in the 2024 election and boosting bigoted and neo-Nazi affiliated content — such as “transphobic misinformation” and pseudo race science — to his 212 million followers on X.
Hours before the deadly Christmas market attack on Dec. 20, Musk endorsed the insurgent far-right German political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD) — which has risen to second place in the national polls ahead of the 2025 federal election — as the only party who “can save Germany”. The AfD strongly opposes immigration, particularly Muslim immigration, campaigning on "zero immigration" policy. Many AfD leaders and chapter groups have been classified as extremist by the German government and have been accused of sympathizing with and spouting phrases associated with Nazism, with some calling to end the country’s culture of remembrance of the Holocaust.
The driver in the market attack, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, is also an avid supporter of the AfD, once declaring that he and the “AfD are fighting the same enemy to protect Germany” on the topic of Muslim immigrants. While he was born a Muslim and in Saudi Arabia, he was radicalized against Islam, abhorring Muslims and Islamic societies.
In 2006, he immigrated to Germany and was officially granted political asylum 10 years later. Germany also rejected extradition requests from Saudi Arabia, with German officials “citing concerns for the man’s safety should he return,” according to CNN.
Al-Abdulmohsen aligns himself with not only the AfD, but also anti-Islam, far-right personalities such as Tommy Robinson, Alex Jones and Geert Wilders, following and reposting their content on the social media platform X. Additionally, he is a staunchly pro-Israel, often reposting pro-Israeli content and even posting on X, “We call on the Arabs to take to the streets in demonstrations to demand that Israel annex the West Bank and Gaza, and if they so wish, annex Lebanon as well.” Finally, he follows, reposts and even replies supportively to Musk on X.
In a series of audio clips posted hours before the deadly attack, al-Abdulmohsen confessed grievances with the German government, seemingly explaining why he would go on to drive into a crowded Christmas market, killing five and injuring hundreds. In the audio clips he expressed his utmost anger with Germany “actively, criminally chasing Islam critics to ruin their lives” and facilitating the complete Islamization of Germany. He also vented frustrations regarding a charity for atheist refugees by accusing them of corruption and taking advantage of Saudi women refugees. With all of his rancor, he directed all of the blame towards German society as a whole.
However, in the early aftermath of the attack and no information on the driver except visual appearance, Musk and other Islamophobes jumped at the chance to paint Muslim immigrants in broad strokes as fundamental Islamists and a danger to the western society, with Musk immediately reposting a post on X displaying the first picture disseminated of al-Abdulmohsen asking, “Notice anything?” clearly referencing his Arab appearance, and claiming, “This is a DIRECT RESULT of mass unchecked immigration,” oversimplifying the complex issue of immigration and fueling xenophobic narratives.
Musk also reposted a post by the leader of the UK’s far-right Reform party, Nigel Farage, that exclaimed, “We have allowed people who hate us and our values into Europe. Christmas is their target. Any guesses why?”
In the midst of stoking the anger and fear in those susceptible to such hatred against Muslims and immigrants, Musk’s X took down al-Abdulmohsen’s account, restricting users from viewing his profile and discover he was, in fact, not a West-hating Muslim terrorist as many were claiming him to be. The account was reactivated a few hours later, but with noticeable changes.
Al-Abdulmohsen’s posts were no longer searchable, and because X only displays the last 3,200 posts on one’s profile page, all posts from before Nov. 12 were essentially lost. Hours later, al-Abdulmohsen’s post count dropped from 121.5k to 121.3k. (For these reasons, many sources of al-Abdulmohsen’s posts shared on X and used in articles are in the form of screenshots.) Proof of his anti-Islam activism reaching back for years and years was erased besides the handful of posts screenshotted, which played perfectly into Musk’s fantasy that al-Abdulmohsen was in fact not an ex-Muslim atheist, but rather a radical Islamist who practices “Taqqiye, an Islamic doctrine that permits lying and deception to advance Islamic objectives,” according to a video post Musk quote reposted. In the quote repost, he added, “Wtf is the German press saying? Most people in Europe still think the legacy press is real, when it is pure propaganda. Please send them links to X, so they know what’s actually going on.”
Taqiyya is the “precautionary denial of religious belief in the face of potential persecution” typically practiced to conceal religious beliefs to avoid putting one’s life or property at risk. It is neither a widely used nor a mainstream concept in Islam today.
Main points peddled in the video latched onto al-Abdulmohsen’s name as evidence of his “identity as a radical shia Muslim,” a handful of other ex-Muslim activists questioning if al-Abdulmohsen ever left Islam, and a screenshot of direct messages — with no context — between an unknown user and al-Abdulmohsen where he threatens them with the “Saudi Military Opposition.” The narrator of the video attempts to lead the audience to believe that al-Abdulmohsen had admitted his true intentions in these direct messages — that he is loyal to Saudi Arabia— when, if you check his account’s bio information, he describes himself as “Saudi Military Opposition” to the public.
At the mere mention of Taqiyya, these few pieces of cherry-picked and misrepresented evidence serve to replace the years and years of al-Abdulmohsen’s advocacy against Islam, the vast majority of which have been conveniently restricted. The accusation of Taqiyya is a typical tactic employed by Islamophobes seeking to discredit as well as exacerbate fear and distrust towards Muslims.
Venturing beyond social media, al-Abdulmohsen was an interviewee in a 2019 BBC interview. It was in this interview that al-Abdulmohsen stated he is not only an ex-Muslim but facilitates ex-Muslims’ journeys to flee their countries. Because of this, it should be undeniable that he is an ex-Muslim. As what Muslim — so dedicated to Islam that he would carry out a mass killing —would spend over a decade helping ex-Muslims escape their countries?
Also in 2019, he was interviewed by the German FAZ newspaper and said, "I am history's most aggressive critic of Islam. If you don't believe me, ask the Arabs."
Despite the mountains of evidence provided by the attacker’s social media accounts going back over a decade and outside media evidence dating back years, Musk continued to double down on his claims of al-Abdulmohsen’s practice of Taqiyya and hidden agenda by reposting threads such as, “Raw Facts You Won't Hear from the German Media Echo Chambers About the Latest Horrendous Terror Attack in Germany,” and adding “Important thread to understand the magnitude of failure by the German government.”. This thread asserted — with no evidence — al-Abdulmohsen “(reinvented) himself as a dissident” of Saudi Arabia as a “strategic” move to secure asylum.
Still with no tangible proof, Musk continued to post, “The atheist angle was a scam to avoid extradition,” and, “Legacy media lies again,” in response to multiple media outlets reporting al-Abdulmohsen as a self-described Islamophobe.
In reality, Musk and other Islamophobes have no evidence that al-Abdulmohsen was indeed a Muslim. But if they really think they do, they should at least know it is shaky and unverified evidence at best. So why accuse and participate in the spreading of mass, shaky at absolute best, but most likely erroneous, information? Because the more that they believe the driver to be a Muslim, the more powerful their following and fear mongering grows, not only in Germany ahead of the country’s February 2025 elections, but worldwide where issues of Islamophobia and xenophobia are lightning rod political issues.
Divisive accusations, such as these, have already bred Islamophobia and accelerated violence and hate crimes in the past, with a 114% rise in Germany in 2023 all the while nine in 10 German Muslims did not complain to police about the hate crimes they experienced.
Rather than spewing hateful disinformation and launching suppression campaigns, the tender moments after tragedies should be time for a society to come together as a collective and heal, not turn against one another to further exacerbate social tensions as Musk and the AfD have — with the firebrand AfD leader Alice Weidel ironically condemning al-Abdulmohsen as “an Islamist full of hatred” in an emotional speech. The solution to radicalized violence will never lie in the demonization of a minority — fear only works to divide us and push the marginalized to the brink — but rather, within the tranquil unity of society in the solidaric quest for a peaceful, just world.
Omeed Mehrzad (he/him) is a sophomore on the pre-med track studying Political Science/Economics.
