My Munich Tweet Goes Viral

I wanted to update you about some interesting events from last Friday. After I sent the newsletter, I was driving back home from Canada. I received a series of text messages from my brother who was vacationing in Munich at the time of the terrorist attack.

Fortunately, he’s fine and was never in any danger. He wasn’t near the mall where the shooting took place. However, he was in the section of town where the authorities believed, erroneously, the killers had fled to.

Everything was on lockdown and people were ordered to stay inside. All the municipal transportation was closed. My brother was basically stranded until he came across, Mosab, a young Syrian man working in Germany. Mosab tried to get my brother help, but when that fell through, he volunteered to drive him home. My brother mentioned that Mosab’s phone was full of messages from his family in Aleppo worrying about his safety. Ironic.

I took my brother’s Facebook post and made this tweet:

I didn’t think much of it, and I was completely surprised to see that the tweet had been retweeted hundreds of times. Looking back on it, I now see it why people appreciate the human interest side—a Syrian immigrant assisting people in the wake of an awful terrorist attack.

My tweet was even quoted in the Washington Post:

A U.S. investment adviser and blogger, Eddy Elfenbein, tweeted Friday that his brother was in Munich. “He was helped to safety by a young Syrian immigrant. The young man’s family called from Aleppo to see if he was OK,” Elfenbein wrote.

The tweet has now been RT’d over 1,500 times. Some people have claimed that I was pushing a political point. I can assure you I wasn’t. We all know that social media can be a raucous place. I just relayed the story as I heard it.

But wherever you are, Mosab, thank you for your generous spirit.

Posted by on July 25th, 2016 at 12:56 pm


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