Right-wing disinformation about Magdeburg attacker Taleb Al A. on the Internet | EUROtoday

Der 20. Dezember 2024 geht als ein weiteres Datum in die Geschichte des Terrors ein. Ein Attentäter rast mit seinem Wagen auf den Weihnachtsmarkt in Magdeburg, auf vierhundert Metern mäht er Menschen um, bis er auf seiner irren Fahrt gestoppt wird. Mehr als 200 Verletzte und – bislang – fünf Tote sind zu beklagen. Taleb Al A. will ein Zeichen setzen, er will sich rächen, er will bestrafen. Für seine Rache sucht er sich die unschuldigsten, wehrlosesten Opfer aus, Familien mit Kindern auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt. Er verbreitet Leid und Schrecken. So sieht Terror aus.

Die Wahrnehmung einer solchen Untat folgt einem Muster, das wir seit Jahren kennen. Es beginnt mit Eilmeldungen, die davon handeln, dass sich auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt in Magdeburg etwas Schreckliches ereignet hat. Von vielen Verletzten ist die Rede, von Todes­opfern noch nicht. Das wird sich bald ändern. Kein Unglück, ein Anschlag, das ist bald klar. Erste Bilder von der Schreckensfahrt gehen im Internet viral, sie künden vom Ausmaß des Leids. Wir sehen einen einzelnen Polizisten, der den Täter mit gezückter Waffe stellt.

Nicht lange, da wird bekannt, dass es sich um einen fünfzig Jahre alten Mann handelt, der aus Saudi-Arabien stammt. Das passt ins Raster. Die meisten mörderischen Anschläge der vergangenen Jahre in Europa gehen auf das Konto von Islamisten, deren familiäre Wurzeln im Nahen Osten liegen – der Massenmord im Bataclan in Paris, die Terrorfahrt in Nizza, der Anschlag auf den Weihnachtsmarkt auf dem Breitscheidplatz in Berlin vor acht Jahren, das Attentat auf die Redaktion von „Charlie Hebdo“, der Mord an dem Lehrer Samuel Paty, die Ermordung des Polizisten Rouven Laur in Mannheim, das Messerattentat auf einem Volksfest in Solingen mit drei Toten, um nur einige zu nennen.

And so the media phrase of mouth heads in direction of the second well-known level: the origin and intention of the perpetrator. The proven fact that it’s an Islamist is rigorously thought of and questioned within the established media, claimed by some tabloids after which quietly deleted. In “social” media, on the web platforms, nevertheless, it’s shortly a foregone conclusion and stays so. Especially on the platform of the digital chief whip Elon Musk. Only this time the calculation would not add up. The pretend information makers don’t care.

Five and a half years earlier than his crime, Taleb Al A. appeared with an interview within the FAZ’s options part. In June 2019 he introduced himself as a radical opponent of Islam. “I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history,” he mentioned, describing his dedication to individuals who fled the repressive regime in Saudi Arabia – like himself. He got here to Germany in 2006 and eventually obtained political assist in 2016 Asylum, he labored as a specialist in psychiatry within the Bernburg jail and appeared built-in into German society. In current years, nevertheless, he has proven indicators of paranoia and radicalization that was directed not solely in opposition to Islam, but in addition in opposition to the German state.

The query that’s typically requested is that if one couldn’t and mustn’t have acknowledged this. In view of the hatred and threats of violence which can be circulating in abundance on on-line platforms, the query appears pointless. And one must be cautious in saying that somebody ought to have acknowledged Taleb Al A’s radicalization and intervened. “In 25 years I have never seen such a perpetrator profile,” says terrorism professional Peter Neumann, who teaches at King’s College in London, on n-tv. However, the right-wing agitators on the web haven’t any issues with this profile. Whatever would not match into the grid, they make it match.

Of course, Taleb Al A. is guilty for the conspiracy narrative from the fitting, but in addition the German state. If not an Islamist, then the origin of the perpetrator have to be sufficient to elucidate it. Elon Musk is directing the outrage in direction of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whom he calls an “incompetent idiot” on his Platform X. The proven fact that Taleb Al A., together with his delusion that he needed to punish the nation that took him in by killing harmless folks, himself may have approached the concepts of the ethnic camp and leaned in direction of the AfD, is ignored there. The story goes, as you possibly can hear from AfD influencer Naomi Seibt, who has a number of hundred thousand followers: It would not matter whether or not the perpetrator was loopy, an agent, “maybe an Islamist, maybe an atheist” or himself I establish as a “non-binary unicorn”. What issues is that with the AfD in authorities he would not be in Germany. The solely hope “for this country” rests on the AfD. This is what one among this celebration’s key phrases speaks in a cracking voice that Elon Musk likes to take heed to. As far as Germany is worried, it’s his most well-liked supply. Its algorithm ensures their attain.

But there’s extra. An AfD member of the state parliament writes of 34 deaths. The Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner believes the perpetrator in Magdeburg was a Syrian, speaks of 11 lifeless, rumors of 5 perpetrators, two shot by the police, three on the run, and explosives in automobiles. The Identitarian Movement maintains that it was an “Islamist” assault that solely “remigration” may have prevented. The made-up quote is put into the mouth of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier that it is vital to not denounce the one who dedicated the crime and to take heed to the explanations calmly and patiently. Open borders “contribute to security”. Meanwhile, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sources are spreading the rumor that the Israeli secret service was behind the assault, studies the Austrian-founded affiliation “Mimikama,” which displays and refutes disinformation on-line, on its web site. Turkish nationalists blamed “Kurdish militias.”

Evil wants a face, it wants a reputation and an handle. The pretend information makers already know prematurely what that is. The state is guilty, democracy, the political opponent. The extra ideology is concerned, the extra consolidated the doctrine and enemy photographs are, the much less the info rely and the clearer the decision is. They flood the digital world with pretend information, disinformation and lies. And there’s by no means a scarcity of reference to the truth that the established media hid these “truths”.

But the place did Taleb Al A. publish his complicated thesis that Germany was not serving to Saudi refugees, particularly girls, however was persecuting them and wished to “Islamize” Europe? Under the rub of a rapid-fire rifle on Elon Musk’s Platform -Media” criticized. “Unfortunately, social media is full of hate and violent fantasies, and the situation is constantly getting worse. X in particular has reduced, not improved, its content moderation in the last few months,” he says. Taleb Al A. has made 121,378 posts on Twitter or X since he registered in March 2016, because the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk counted.

“So if the laws don’t allow me to protect myself, and the government itself – instead of protecting me – becomes a criminal, the police themselves are criminals, then in this case I consider the German nation, I consider the German citizens as responsible for what happened to me,” wrote Taleb Al A. His final entries are from December twentieth, the day he drove his rental automobile into the group on the Christmas market in Magdeburg.

This is how the circle of terror closes. The AfD has known as for a serious rally in Magdeburg on Monday.