The head of a non-profit organization charged with deradicalizing the jihadi who killed one woman and injured 29 others in a car and knife attack on the Berlin Pride Parade is under fire for promoting Islamic and left-wing propaganda.
Thomas Mücke, the managing director of the Violence Prevention Network, held talks with Abdul Rehman Ballout, the ISIS supporter who attacked revelers on July 25 at one of the largest LGBT+ festivals in Europe, just two weeks before his jihadi attack, according to German news outlet NIUS.
The NGO, which received almost 70 million euros of taxpayer cash between 2014 and 2024, says it aims “to prevent and counter violent extremism” by building “transformative approaches in addressing the root causes and challenges of violent extremism and radicalization.”
Mücke told Tagesspiegel that in his interviews with Ballout before the attack, the Islamist had appeared friendly but evasive, especially about his ideological beliefs. “In the two preliminary interviews, not the slightest sign of a concrete threat emerged,” the director said. But “my staff already had the impression that his answers were merely for show.”
Ballout gave social workers “a very composed, very cautious, very controlled and very friendly impression,” Mücke added. “And those are precisely the criteria where we realize we can’t really get to know the person.”
NGO Downplays Islamist Ideology, Pushes Leftist Policies
Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) reviewed resources used by the Violence Prevention Network and found an absence of material addressing Islamism as a religio-political ideology and the root cause of jihadi violence. While one document (described below) does address the Islamist commitments of women who went to Syria to support ISIS, the organization seems intent on downplaying the Islamic component of Islamism, lumping it with other “fundamentalist,” patriarchal, and right-wing ideologies.
Instead, the tools and resources section of the NGO’s website hosts left-wing material such as a 15-page policy brief titled “How Anti-feminist and Anti-gender Ideologies Contribute to Violent Extremism” published by the Violence Prevention Network and the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy. The brief blames extremist beliefs like Islamism on “ideologies of inequality.”
Until serious and incontrovertible measures are taken in Europe to confront Islamist extremism and terrorism, the situation will only get worse.
A booklet titled Deradicalization in Prison: Violence Prevention Network’s Deradicalization Programme does not mention “Islam” or “Islamism.” Rather, the resource pairs “right-wing and religious extremism” multiple times and warns that “they still have much in common” despite differences in “their enemy portrayals and in the ideological basis of their attitudes.” There is only one illustration in the 17-page brief of a trainer and participant contesting interpretations of verses from the Qur’an and hadiths on whether infidels belong in hell.
Similarly, a 38-page booklet dealing with women and children who have joined jihadi groups titled Female Returnees and their Children describes ISIS as the “so-called Islamic State.” This document does acknowledge that, “Women who followed their husbands to ‘IS’ were often just as motivated to join or encouraged their husbands to do so, some of them were even the main driving force behind leaving.” The report adds that for these women, “the dream of gaining status and importance and finding a purpose in life was a strong driving force, which indicates that they were not able to find all of this in the life they left behind.” The document also acknowledged that women who served in the morality police after joining ISIS became “perpetrators.”
Nevertheless, the authors of the report seem intent on portraying women who joined as victims not of Islamism, but of a nondescript patriarchal ideology. By lumping ISIS in with the generic rubrics of fundamentalism and patriarchy, the NGO hinders scrutiny of Islamism and its scriptural, doctrinal, historical roots within the Islamic tradition. In sum, the Violence Prevention Network obscures the tenets of Salafist jihadism, a radical, puritanical interpretation of Sunni Islam that demands a return to the practices of the earliest Muslim generations and treats violent jihad as a religious duty to overthrow “apostate” regimes, expel non-Muslim influence, and establish a transnational caliphate under strict Sharia. Its core doctrines include takfir (declaring dissenting Muslims unbelievers and legitimate targets), rejection of democracy and secular law as idolatry, and the framing of the West as an existential enemy—ideas that underpin groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The Ultimate Agenda
VPN’s efforts to strip Islamism of its religious components should come as no surprise given the organization’s overall leftist bent and implicit desire to normalize Islamic doctrine in Western democracies, as evidenced by Mücke’s work with another organization, Gangway e.V., where he serves as chairman. Ostensibly, this organization helps teenagers and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. “However, the organization doesn’t just help young people; it also engages in left-wing propaganda,” NIUS warned.
While Gangway e.V. aims “to address gender-specific problems” and provide safe spaces for “breaking free from gender roles,” a publicity flyer “shows four young women wearing headscarves, an Islamic patriarchal symbol,” and holding “large laser tag guns,” NIUS revealed.
“For the 2023 Berlin state elections, the NGO published a poster in the style of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) campaign “Germany. But normal,” but with the inscription “Germany, but halal.” The Neukölln chapter of the NGO displays a post with a group spray painting a graffiti of Palestinian flags.
“The fact that Thomas Mücke is the managing director of a deradicalization NGO seems almost cynical when you see these images,” NIUS commented. “The demand that Germany should conform to Islamic standards is shocking.”
Jihadi Was Converting Inmates to Salafism
Meanwhile, German media outlets are uncovering more details of Ballout’s radicalization. According to Bild, authorities at the juvenile detention center separated the jihadi from other inmates in December 2025 after he tried to convert them to Salafism, a strict interpretation of Islam. He also presented himself as extremely religious in detention, praying five times a day.
An internal judicial document states that Ballout’s “appearance” changed in January 2026 and was suddenly “strongly influenced by Salafism,” Bild reported. “His current pre-trial detention has not resulted in any discernible change in his extremist views.”
Police continued to monitor Ballout’s mobile phone after his release from pre-trial detention and found him maintaining contact with inmates and presenting himself as their religious leader. The Muslims even prayed together over the phone, with Ballout singing along.
The jihadi was under surveillance by security authorities just an hour before the attack on the Berlin Pride parade, German media outlets reported. A camera installed by the Berlin State Criminal Police Office opposite his building entrance filmed the 21-year-old at 8:58 pm on the evening of July 25 as he left the house to commit his jihadi attack. German special forces shot Ballout dead after launching a nationwide manhunt.
According to counter-extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, more than 9,000 Islamists are living in the country in 2025, including 2,590 in the capital, 1,940 of whom are believed to be violent.
“Until serious and incontrovertible measures are taken in Europe to confront Islamist extremism and terrorism, the situation will only get worse,” Giovanni Giacalone, a terrorism expert at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona, told FWI.
