Hamburg prosecutors open criminal investigation into Christian YouTubers for criticising Islam

Tino and Niko from their channel introduction video.

From Apollo News:

The Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating two Christian YouTubers for criticizing Muslim anti-semitism and Islam in a video …

Together, Niko and Tino run the Christian YouTube channel “Eternal Life,” where they post videos in which they talk with people about Jesus and his message. …

In February 2025, the public prosecutor’s office launched an ex officio investigation into Niko over statements in a video from 2024 … The Protestant newspaper Idea was the first to report on the investigation against Niko. Apollo News has now learned that the second YouTuber, Tino, is also under investigation for the same video …

Tino and Niko have taken down the offending video, entitled “Islam is not peace” (“Der Islam ist kein Frieden”), but reporters have seen it. Apparently it was posted in the context of the pro-Palestine protests that were unfolding in Hamburg at the time and features Niko editorialising on what he sees as the dangers of Islam. The video claims that “Palestinians are working toward the extermination of the Jews, according to the dictates of the Hadiths,” among them the Hadith proclaiming that “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them” – a text which indeed is cited in Article 7 of the Hamas Charter. In the video Niko further claims that “Hatred of Jews … is a demonic spirit and does not come from God” and that “Islam and the message behind it bring only hatred, power, and murder,” concluding that “This religion is not peace, not joy and not life.”

Prosecutors believe these statements may violate Section 166 of the German Criminal Code, which prohibits the “Revilement of religious faiths and religious and ideological communities.” Specifically, StGB §166 makes it illegal to publish content that disparages “the religion or ideology of others” or “a church or other religious or ideological community in Germany … in a manner suited to causing a disturbance of the public peace.” That last clause is the most important. While confessional content like this hardly rises to the level of other speech crimes like incitement, the blasphemy statute imposes a more dangerous standard premissed on the attitudes of the targeted group. If it is likely to inspire unrest among Muslims, in other words, it may well be illegal under StGB §166.

This is another in a long series of cases where we find the German state pursuing small-time content creators for posting the most benign things that would have attracted no attention had there been no criminal investigation. The YouTube channel “Eternal Life” as of today has only about 1,400 subscribers and 17 videos featuring nothing but bog-standard evangelical Christian content. What is more, the offending video had less than 1,000 views before it was removed. Apparently YouTube classified the video as “dangerous” before the prosecutor’s office came knocking, which probably means some internet censorship NGO was responsible for tipping off both prosecutors and the platform.