Germany’s domestic intelligence agency warns that rising levels of Islamist anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment fuel jihadi violence and serve as a significant indicator of Islamism’s hostility towards Western democracies.
In an October 2 press statement, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) drew attention to its dossier sounding the alarm on “widespread Queerphobia in Islamist movements.”
“The rights of Queer people are portrayed as a ‘Western’ attack on Muslim communities and are used, particularly on social media, for mobilization and demarcation,” the BfV statement noted. It underlined the “growing importance” of Islamist Queerphobia “as an expression of Islamist-motivated rejection or even opposition to liberal and pluralistic Western-style democracy.”
We will not allow our religion to be changed.
The dossier conceded that the July 25 attack on LGBTQ+ revelers at the Berlin Pride Parade was “jihadi-motivated” and “dramatically illustrates that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer people” are an “enemy image for Islamists” and “a target for jihadists.”
German special forces shot dead 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, a Lebanese-German Islamic State sympathizer, who targeted the Berlin Pride festival, also known as Christopher Street Day, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ events, with a minivan and knife, injuring 29 and killing a woman.
German commentator Elisabeth Dampier warned that Germany was in “denial” about the Islamist motivation for the assault, and that key German politicians and mainstream news media had blamed the “far-right” for the attack.
Dampier noted that Germany’s “far-right” Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which has the most hardline views on Islamic migration, was found to be the most popular party among gay men in 2025, precisely because queer people in Germany “fear attacks such as this.”
Dossier Unearths Queer-Hatred in Jihadi Propaganda
Jihadis have targeted LGBTQ+ people and symbols with “great brutality” in recent years regularly portraying the gay movement as an enemy in the context of Islamist ideology, the report notes. It cites ISIS propaganda on killing homosexuals by throwing them from rooftops.
The February 2023 edition of the “Voice of Khurasan,” published by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISPK), the Afghan branch of ISIS, features an article titled “Jihad is an Obstacle in the Path of the Followers of Whim” (referring to the LGBTQ+ movement), the report notes.
The article warns that tolerance towards homosexuality is a “newly developed virus” designed to “paralyze Muslim youth,” condemning the LGBTQ+ tolerant Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque in Berlin as a “place of worship of devils.”
The dossier cites the February 2023 issue of the al-Qaeda magazine “Ummah Wahida,” which excoriates Qatar for hosting the 2022 World Cup and for tolerating acts contrary to Islam. It cites as examples the accommodation of homosexuals and the appearance of German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wearing a “One Love” armband at a World Cup match.
Jihadi propaganda also highlights LGBTQ+ immorality to proclaim Islam’s superiority to the West in matters of faith, the dossier notes, citing the example of the al Qaeda-affiliated Telegram channel “Hidayat alsari,” which portrays the West as riddled with alcohol consumption, gambling, fornication, usury, and “(sexual) abnormality” (homosexuality).
Explosion of Salafist and Hizb ut-Tahrir Homophobia
Salafist preacher Pierre Vogel opposes the liberalization of Islam.
(Schängel via Wikimedia)
The dossier underscores how Islamist-motivated, homophobic statements in sermons and on publicly accessible social media platforms are being made by many Salafist preachers and influencers, including Pierre Vogel and Ibrahim El-Azzazi.
Vogel attacks liberal Muslims, whom he believes are corrupting Islam, calling them “charlatans” who rebel against the word of God. He also refers to the traditional views of Christianity and Judaism on homosexuality (which are usually the focus of his criticism), repeatedly proclaiming: “We will not allow our religion to be changed.”
In November 2025, the Federal Minister of the Interior banned the social media channels of the Hizb ut-Tahrir-affiliated groups “Realität Islam,” “Generation Islam” and “Muslim Interaktiv” (MI) for Islamist anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda. The channels published videos, texts, and memes rejecting non-binary gender identities and non-heterosexual orientations as contradicting Islam.
Citing the “Love is Halal” campaign launched in 2021 by Berlin’s Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque, which is backed by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Vogel condemns this as an abuse of Halal certification, which is indispensable for Muslims.
“The reactions from both the Salafist and jihadist spectrum demonstrate a strict rejection of all LGBTQ+ people,” the report concludes. This can “lead to an escalating spiral of vilification of queer people, but also to general hostility towards the Western world and the “unbelievers.’”
“The more intensively politicians and the media address the rights of homosexual and transgender people, the more strongly Islamists propagate queerphobia,” the report noted.
Islamist Content Creator Calls for Execution of Homosexuals
While Britain is also witnessing a spike in Islamist rhetoric against homosexuals, the U.K. authorities have been reluctant to act against Islamists preachers, despite its stringent laws on hate speech.
On October 4, British Muslim content creator Muhammad Saifullah told the Liam Tuffs podcast that he would arrest, try, and execute homosexuals if he were the Prime Minister of Britain. The influencer also said he would stone adulterers and torture apostates to death.
“The progressive elites have always sought to curry favour with Islam based on their mistaken belief that all religions are equal. This report should halt them in their tracks,” Tim Dieppe, Islam expert and Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI).
“Islam is highly intolerant of LGBTQ+ rights, to the extent that Islamists will resort to violence against LGBTQ+ people. Will this challenge the Left’s collaboration with Islam? It should,” stressed Dieppe, author of The Challenge of Islam: Understanding and Responding to Islam’s Increasing Influence in the UK.
Experts Point Out Growing Links Between Jihadism and Anti-Queer Violence
While the BfV dossier is the first report by a European intelligence agency linking Islamism to anti-LGBTQ+ violence, researchers on jihadism have pointed out the Islamist threat to queer communities.
“Queer life in Berlin has long been under pressure from extremists and Islamists, but this attack marks a new and horrific dimension,” Rene Powilleit, a member of the Christian Democratic Union party who leads Berlin’s “Lesbians and Gays in the Union,” noted.
“The warning signs had long been there. Back in 2021, a gay couple was attacked in Dresden by an Islamist and one person was killed,” Powilleit wrote. “What we are dealing with here is not isolated lone attackers but a climate in which radical ideologies thrive and deliberately target open societies.”
“We need to look reality in the eye: political Islam is one of the greatest threats to our Western, liberal, and free way of living together,” he warned. “We need an honest and robust debate about this ideology and an end to all naivety and support for Islamist structures in Germany.”
