Three Moroccans, an Egyptian and a Syrian go to a German Christmas market…

Not. Not this time, at least.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (in Germany), again.

Five arrested over plot to attack German Christmas market – Five men have been arrested in Germany suspected of being involved in a plot to drive a vehicle into people at a Christmas market.

Three Moroccans, an Egyptian and a Syrian were detained on Friday over the plan to target a market in the southern Bavarian state. Authorities said they suspected an “Islamist motive”.

Prosecutors said the Egyptian – a 56-year-old – was alleged to have “called for a vehicle attack… with the aim of killing or injuring as many people as possible”. The Moroccans allegedly agreed to carry out the attack.

Is this crossing of ideological boundaries so unusual?

Or is this way more comman than we want to believe?

“Horst Mahler personified the way that antisemitism crosses ideological boundaries and can appeal to different, ostensibly opposing, extremist movements. Even though on the surface the far right and far left are enemies, they share a contempt for liberal democracy and a conspiratorial view of the world in which Jews, or Zionists, are seen as an obstacle to their political objectives. Given this shared anti-Jewish worldview, Mahler’s political migration from far left to far right is not as uncommon as people might think.”

Car-rammings, stabbings, bombs…

It’s up to you.

The main thing is that everybody has a jolly good carnival celebration time!

German police on alert after Islamic State calls for carnival attacks – Police are on high alert ahead of Germany’s traditional carnival celebrations this week after social media connected to the Islamic State militant group called for attacks targeting revellers in Cologne and Nuremberg, said police spokespeople.

Bild newspaper reported that a German-language propaganda site run by IS had published a computer-created collage image calling on viewers to “choose your next attack target”, and listed the dates and locations of upcoming carnival events.

Sherlock himself

Must have figured this one out.

Syrian suspect in Berlin Holocaust Memorial stabbing wanted to kill Jews, investigators say – The suspect in a stabbing attack at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial that seriously injured a Spanish tourist is a Syrian refugee who apparently wanted to kill Jews, investigators said Saturday.

The 19-year-old suspect was arrested on Friday evening, nearly three hours after the attack, when he approached officers with blood on his hands and clothes…

The suspect arrived in Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor and successfully applied for asylum, investigators said. He lives in Leipzig.

German of the day: Anschlag

That means attack. As in terrorist attack. As in the next one.

Munich: Söder speaks of attack – driver 24-year-old Afghan – A car has driven into a crowd of strikers in Munich. At least 28 people were injured, including children. Bavaria’s Minister President speaks of a “suspected attack”. The driver of the car was an Afghan asylum seeker.

Tis the season to “reflect growing diversity”

Berlin’s Christmas markets have been reflecting this for years.

Berlin’s traditional Christmas markets reflect city’s growing diversity – The smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and hot bratwurst are wafting through the air across the German capital again, as the city’s more than 100 Christmas markets are opening their doors this week. But the annual tradition that Germans have cherished since the Middle Ages — and successfully exported to much of the Western world — has become a pretty diverse affair, at least in Berlin.

Hey, somebody forgot their bag of triacetone triperoxide in the train!

So much for that planned terrorist attack.

Germany: Manhunt after explosives left at Berlin station – German police are looking for a man who left a bag of explosives at Berlin’s Neukölln train station…

A police officer told the daily Berliner Zeitung that “it seems as if an attack has been prevented,” as an explosion caused by the contents of the bag would have had “dramatic consequences” if it occurred near a group of people.

The man ran away after he was subjected to a check by police officers.

The Stasi wasn’t all bad

They were good at secret house searches, for instance.

Will German police get to do secret house searches?

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office wants to secretly break into homes as part of anti-terrorism measures. That is currently prohibited, but the interior minister has far-reaching plans.

At first glance, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser’s (SPD) proposal is reminiscent of a method practiced by the “the Stasi,” the Ministry for State Security of the former communist East Germany, whose secret police infiltrated the homes of suspected regime opponents in order to tap their phones.

At second glance too.

Let’s not jump to conclusions

He’s just a suspect for now.

Just because he was already known to Austrian authorities as an Islamist and purchased his weapon illegally the day before in Salzburg and his shooting rampage in Munich occurred on the anniversary of the Palestinian terror attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered and in the immediate vicinity of the Israeli consulate doesn’t really mean that he was a real Islamist terrorist or anything. Let’s wait until all the facts are in.

German police kill suspected Islamist gunman in shootout near Israeli consulate – German police shot dead an Austrian suspected Islamist gunman in Munich on Thursday in an exchange of fire close to the Israeli consulate, prompting politicians to stress the importance of protecting Israeli sites in the country.