The following commentary was written by German journalist and humanitarian worker Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and published in German on 28 July 2026 under the title Terroranschlag in Berlin: Warum der CSD?. Drawing on his long-standing work with survivors of the Ezidi Genocide and other victims of ISIS, von der Osten-Sacken reflects on the ideology of ISIS and argues that its acts of terrorism should be understood in light of the organisation’s openly declared beliefs and objectives.
First of all: I confess that when it comes to ISIS, I lack any distance. I know too many stories of abused Ezidis, Turkmen and others from my work to be able to feel even a milligram of understanding for the perpetrators. Maybe I could have maintained a little professional distance in 2013, but not anymore after the events of 2014.
I will never forget what it meant to sit in the middle of a group of underage girls who had been abused for months as so-called “sex slaves” and deliberately impregnated by ISIS men who considered this their sacred right.
From a report from that time:
Some of the girls are so young that they do not understand what rape is, Chiman says. But they had all experienced similar things: they were sold, abused and beaten. Many had to watch their fathers, brothers and mothers being murdered in cold blood. Now they have to try to rebuild their lives while members of their families are often still in the hands of the terrorist organisation.
Anyone who sympathised with ISIS after 2014 or even wanted to join it knew that it was a barbaric organisation of jihadist terrorists responsible for mass murder and genocide—and nothing else.
They supported ISIS because it was like that, not despite it being like that. Deadly hatred was always part of the organisation’s ideology. Men accused of homosexuality were publicly thrown from high-rise buildings in Raqqa and Mosul or executed by other means. This had been widely known since at least 2015:
“Jessica Stern, the executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told the council that courts established by ISIS in Iraq and Syria claimed to have punished sodomy with stoning, firing squads and beheadings and by pushing men from tall buildings.”
And what do I read today in taz? This:
“It also remains open why the alleged act was directed against queer people and why Christopher Street Day (CSD) became the target of the attack.”
That is about as intelligent as asking why a convinced Nazi attacked a refugee camp or a synagogue. If there is one question in this entire case that is not open—and there are still many others—it is this one.
Nor was it an “alleged act,” but the deliberate killing and injury of people, carried out by an “alleged perpetrator.” In a state governed by the rule of law, that term is used because there is a presumption of innocence.
At most, it would be necessary to determine whether the act constituted terrorism. That question, however, has already been answered once the competent state authorities classify it as such—which they have.
Have these people forgotten which groups ISIS has always directed its terror against? Have they never read an issue of Dabiq, the ISIS magazine that was also appeared in English? Or are they simply pretending not to know?
