Nora Doaiji نورة الدعيجي

An absolute gem of an article on how Saudi ex-Muslim turned extreme-right wing Islamophobe Taleb Abdulmohsen came to drive into a X-mas market in Magdeburg. Very enlightening on the deeply divided ex-Muslim scene, the new Atheists and the surgebin atheism in KSA. Also reminds me of a friend...

Thank you for reading! 🙏🏻 I am glad you found it interesting

And of course, I saved the best for last — my forever favorite editor of them all, @alamer.bsky.social. 🥰

And thank you to New Lines’ sister publication, @AlpheratzMag on X, and their equally awesome team of editors!

Here is the earlier version of my piece in Arabic:

x.com/alpheratzmag...

I also want to thank both @hhassan.bsky.social and @olasalem.bsky.social. As I hope they’re well aware, I’ve been a long-time fan of New Lines since it first launched. I’m excited to now be counted as one among its many unique authors. I hope this piece is just the first of many more!

I’d like to thank all the amazing editors, especially @lsmwilson.bsky.social, @faisalalyafai.bsky.social, @samerbadawi.bsky.social, @josbetts.bsky.social, and @chriselkholy.bsky.social. I couldn’t have asked for a better first-time experience with @newlinesmag.bsky.social!

When I first warned about him, the attacker vowed to report me to German police, and later to the FBI.

To write a long profile on him 7 yrs later, and after he’d committed such a violent act, was surreal — to say the least.

I thank @newlinesmag.bsky.social for unique space to do so.

This piece features new info and unexplored sides to the story via old & recent deleted posts, private msgs, and attacker’s manifesto in his public but small Telegram group.

It also draws on my experience. After first encounter in April 2017, I warned about his ethics for yrs.

🧵How A Saudi Atheist Became A Killer

2 months before German elections, a car drove into a Christmas market in Magdeburg killing 6 people.

When the attacker’s identity was reviled, many struggled to reconcile his atheism with his terrorism.

In this piece, I tell his story.
bsky.app/profile/newl...

This fascinating essay by @doaiji.bsky.social reads like a detective story, full of plot twists, as it explores the life of a Saudi ex-Muslim refugee in Germany who carried out a horrendous attack on a Christmas market two months before the elections.

Following his posted message on August 6, 2024, Taleb then posted on November 9, 2024 linking to a list of what seems to be his “demands.”

Taleb then added, “I advise that you all to take a copy of this tweet.”

x.com/drtalebjawad...

Prior to that final message, Taleb Abdulmohsen posted what appears to be the latest update in his alleged court case with the Germany-based Atheist Refugee Relief org.

On August 6, 2024, Taleb posted in Arabic (my translation):

Taleb Abdulmohsen has several social media accounts. I found three particularly interesting messages in one of them, which might constitute his “manifesto.”

The final message was posted on December 14, 2024, where Taleb wrote in Arabic (my translation):

The legal dispute is allegedly about Taleb’s public accusations against Atheist Refugee Relief. He claims that the org took advantage of some Saudi women. He claimed that the Arab exMuslim affiliate of the org sued him in Court.

[screenshots of an alleged supporter of Taleb claims]

Taleb has had many disputes with varied people. According to him, one of these disputes reached German court system. It involved Taleb’s dispute with another Arab ExMuslim affiliate of Atheist Refugee Relief, an org founded in Cologne, Germany in 2017.

From the Dina Ali case, I wasn’t comfortable with Taleb’s “style,” shall we say. I noted ego, paranoia, aggressiveness, unclear and at times suspicious access to information, questionable ethics in terms of activist methods, and emotional instability.

I first encountered Taleb in 2017 while looking into the case of Saudi asylum-seeker, Dina Ali Lasaloom. En route to Australia, she was stopped in transit in Manila, Philippines, & forcibly returned home on April 11, 2017.

Over the years, Taleb has been active, to say the least, in several interesting circles. These include Saudi ex-Muslims, dissidents, and asylum-seekers, especially in Europe.

🧵🪡 THREAD on Taleb Abdulmohsen, the man accused of attacking Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.

As you should 💁🏻‍♀️

That was always going to happen, it’s inevitable. Bluesky needs to start strategizing for it now, if it hasn’t already. Cc @jay.bsky.team

Chinese state media is reportedly troubled by the latest exodus of X users flocking to Bluesky. State outlets, which put considerable resources into amassing millions of followers on Elon Musk’s social media platform — including by buying ads, deploying bots, and hiring influencers — have recently seen their growth plateau. The growing popularity of Bluesky, which has a largely liberal base and harder-to-manipulate algorithm, has sparked “worried chatter within Chinese state media circles,” a former Xinhua and China Daily employee wrote in his newsletter. He predicted the accounts will migrate to Bluesky, though it may take time. For now, the sector’s focus has shifted back to domestic, Mandarin-language channels and platforms like Bilibili, WeChat, and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

lol China's state media is sad about Bluesky because it's not an easy propaganda distribution channel like X (and Facebook)

www.semafor.com/article/11/2...

Great article, love the phrase “broligarchy.”

Ans I second the advice to watch “The Lives of Others,” a film about life and surveillance in east Berlin.

There’s something uniquely stupid about all the fawning “will Elon Musk do to the U.S. government what he did to Twitter?” coverage, just as the dessicated husk of Twitter topples over.

Floating signifies like "woke" work for the right because they are a way to game journalism's objectivity norms:
If you stipulate a made up grievance, there is no other side to counter your point. And you are just allowed to state things like "my grift will fix cancel culture."

Since some seem determined not to get it:

Arguing science shouldn’t be political is like arguing that ducks shouldn’t be waterfowl.

Sure, whatever floats your boat, but they wouldn’t be ducks then would they?

Science is a collective human effort at sensemaking—the very definition of political.

I have been looking for something like this! Thank you for sharing 🙏🏻

US media likes to mirror what it thinks its viewers believe.

The media has mostly decided that pres election results show that most Americans hate gov institutions, red tape, immigrants, & the price of eggs.

And so now we get this at CNN.. a timid, but explicit endorsement of Musk & Vivek’s DOGE.

When you bend the knee they kill you anyway. Fuck em up to the end.

I like that, & it’s very true.