On Sunday, July 26, German police shot dead the suspected perpetrator of a car-ramming attack on Berlin’s Pride march, which had left one dead and 20 injured the day before. The suspect already had a police record due to his previous attempt to join the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS).

In the 2010s, ISIS claimed multiple attacks on cultural events, mostly concerts. Some of its deadliest attacks on European soil were the 2015 Paris Bataclan attack and the 2017 bombing of an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena. More recently, in summer 2024, there was a failed ISIS-inspired plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.

There have also been previous directly homophobic ISIS-inspired attacks – the group also claimed responsibility for the 2016 attack on Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

As of 2018, ISIS no longer exists as a physical state, and without a political entity to inspire further attacks in Europe, its violence has slowed drastically over the last decade.

Yet the toxic ideology of “ISISism” – which seeks to resurrect a pre-modern Caliphate through modern, Western means, including social media – has continued to present the ultimate form of counter-hegemonic rebellion for a certain segment of young Muslims. Even stripped of its physical territory, the Islamic State still profoundly challenges and violates the sovereignty and safety of the........

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