Berliners gathered in mourning on Sunday, 26 July, following the previous evening’s attack near the city’s Christopher Street Day celebrations. One woman was killed and many others were injured. Germany’s federal prosecutor has taken over the investigation on suspicion of an Islamist motive; the full circumstances remain under investigation.
On Sunday, an interfaith memorial service was held at St Mary’s Church on Alexanderplatz, followed by a silent march to the Brandenburg Gate. Seyran Ateş and Tugay Saraç led the Islamic contribution on behalf of the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque. In the mosque’s invitation, Ateş wrote:
As the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque, we do not merely stand alongside the queer community — we are part of that community.
Seyran Ateş
Reflecting on Qur’an 5:32 — “Whoever kills a person, it is as though they had killed all humanity” — Ateş added:
God does not make a person’s worth dependent on their religion, origin, or sexual orientation. Every person is a creation of God. Every person possesses equal dignity. And every human life is sacred.
Seyran Ateş
IARF is deeply saddened by this tragedy, which took a human life, brought injury and suffering to many more, and deepened fear among people already vulnerable to hostility. We condemn this act of violence without reservation. We mourn the woman who was killed and stand with those who were injured, their loved ones, our members and friends in Berlin and across Germany, and all those who now feel threatened.
Difference should never be treated as a threat or become a cause of fear and hatred. Religious extremism must be named and confronted. But this attack must not be cynically used as a pretext to demonise an entire group, whether ethnic or religious. Collective guilt is both false and dangerous.
For more than 125 years, IARF has brought together people who affirm the intrinsic value of every human being and each person’s right to self-determination and unconstrained intellectual and spiritual growth, within a culture of mutual respect. Together with our members, partners and countless people of goodwill, we strive for a world in which individuals can live out their truth while according that same right to others.
Such a world can be achieved only through honest dialogue, real and effective measures to protect vulnerable groups, and actions that give expression to our experience of faith as a liberating and reconciling force — in our communities, across regions and countries, and globally, in every sphere of social life.
The mosque’s invitation concluded with words that also express the spirit in which IARF offers this statement:
Love is halal. Hatred is never permitted.
Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque