Berlin: an LGBT activist lamented that the Islamist attack at the march had not been carried out by a "white Christian"

An LGBT activist became the center of a strong controversy in Germany after stating, during a vigil for the victims of the Islamist attack against the Pride march in Berlin, that she had hoped the perpetrator of the attack would be "a white Christian" and not a Muslim immigrant. The comment, recorded on video, quickly went viral on social media and sparked an intense debate.

The statement was made during the tribute held on Sunday, July 26, in memory of the victims of the attack that occurred the day before at the Christopher Street Day (CSD), the traditional Pride march in Berlin. In front of those present, the woman confessed that, upon hearing the news, her first reaction was to wish that the attacker was not a Muslim immigrant.

"I hoped it wouldn't be a 'kanak', I hoped it would be a white Christian", she expressed. In Germany, the term "kanak" is used derogatorily to refer to people of immigrant origin, especially from the Middle East.

After that statement, the activist tried to justify her words by appealing to the concept of intersectionality and argued that different groups face different struggles, although they must support each other in moments like this. However, her statements were widely questioned and began to spread massively on the social network X.

The attack occurred on the night of July 25 in Tiergarten Park, near the Brandenburg Gate. According to German authorities, Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen of Lebanese origin, deliberately drove a van into the crowd participating in the march and then got out of the vehicle to attack several people with a knife.

The result was one woman dead and 29 injured, several of them seriously. Ballout initially managed to escape but was located the next day in a suburb of Berlin. During the operation, he attempted to assault the officers with a knife and was shot by the police.

The investigation also revealed that the attacker was already known to German security agencies due to his links with radical Islamist circles and had even attempted to join the Islamic State. For this reason, the German Ministry of the Interior officially classified the incident as an Islamist terrorist attack.

The repercussions of the video quickly transcended German borders. Among those who reacted was Elon Musk, who shared the footage on X and questioned why certain political and cultural sectors seem to only accept hate speech directed against "white heterosexual men". His statements contributed to amplifying a debate that continues to dominate public conversation in Germany.