• Andrew Tate falsely blamed Muslims for the Mannheim attack, despite the perpetrator being a Christian named Alexander Scheuermann.
• Ironically, a Muslim man is the hero of this story. Such misinformation fuels Islamophobia and real-world harm. Will Tate & the PBD podcast issue a retraction?
I find myself having to do the job of the mainstream media—despite their multimillion-pound budgets—by setting the record straight on a recent incident and cleaning up the misinformation spread by “our brother” Andrew Tate.
What I’m referring to is the tragic event that took place in Mannheim, Germany, over the past few days. A man deliberately drove his car into a crowd, killing two people and injuring many others. As expected, social media quickly blamed Muslims for the attack, as seen in this misinformed tweet.
One would hope that those with significant influence and large audiences would take the time to fact-check before spreading misinformation.
Unfortunately, Andrew Tate has repeatedly fallen into this trap. On the PBD podcast, he stated:
"Guess what I saw in the car on the way here? A terror attack in Germany. A car attack. A Muslim ran over a bunch of white people in Germany this morning."
However, this claim has been proven to be completely false. The perpetrator was actually 40-year-old Alexander Scheuermann, who—far from being a Muslim or an Afghan migrant—was a Christian. His social media posts confirm this fact.
And in an ironic twist, the person who chased, stopped, and apprehended the attacker until the police arrived was Afzal Muhammad—a brown, Muslim man.
Yet, despite the truth being known in the German media, the false narrative continued to spread for days.
This follows a disturbing pattern. Regarding the Southport riots, the police admitted—seven days ago—that the perpetrator, Axel Rudakabana, was neither Muslim nor an illegal migrant, as was falsely claimed. One of the higher ups in the police force wanted the public to know this due to the rampant Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate attacks that began. In reality, he was born in Cardiff to Catholic parents, was a regular churchgoer, and even a former choirboy. Yet, Andrew Tate helped spread the lie that he was an illegal migrant.
Ironically, during the same PBD podcast, Tate finally acknowledged that the Southport attacker was a Christian:
"The Southport killer, he was from Rwanda, I believe. He came from a Christian family and killed four or five little girls, stabbing them to death. That’s what caused all the riots."
So why did Tate push the false narrative for so long? Why does he consistently jump at any opportunity to blame Muslims and migrants? And more importantly, will the PBD podcast or Andrew Tate himself issue a retraction?
Last time something similar happened, Nigel Farage—who initially quoted Andrew Tate—eventually distanced himself from him, saying, “I shouldn’t have listened to him.” If Tate was once “the most Googled man on the planet,” shouldn’t he also be among the most responsible and accurate voices, instead of recklessly spreading misinformation?
That said, let’s not forget to acknowledge Afzal Muhammad for his bravery. And in another instance—around the same time as the Southport riots—there was a stabbing near Leicester Square. And yet again, the individual who apprehended the attacker was a Muslim.
The irony is undeniable!
I’m putting this out there in the hope that it might prevent further harm—whether it’s a Muslim woman having her hijab ripped off, children facing street harassment, or some unhinged individual plotting an attack on a mosque based on false narratives.
