The American Requiem: When the boundaries between church, AfD, fanaticism and state sank in a football stadium

On a Sunday morning in September 2025, the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, turned into a stage for a spectacle that revealed the profound fusion of religion and politics in America. What was announced as a memorial service for the murdered far-right ultraextreme conservative activist Charlie Kirk turned out to be a multi-hour political rally, permeated with evangelical zeal and vows of revenge against a nebulous enemy called “the Left.” But the true dimension of this event only becomes clear when one looks at Kirk’s political work and his international connections - especially to the German AfD.

As recently as May 2024, Kirk had described in his show the classification of the AfD as a right-wing extremist suspected case by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution as “tyranny in disguise.” “The AfD is Germany’s MAGA,” declared his co-host, “a nationalist party with strong borders that rejects the chaos of open borders and is committed to preserving culture.” Kirk himself rhetorically asked: “Why are American taxpayers funding Germany’s military with billions while they imprison opposition voices?” Europe, Kirk said, loves to lecture the USA about democracy, but this was “tyranny in disguise.”

This connection between American ultraconservatives and the German far-right now also manifested itself at his memorial service. Alice Weidel, the AfD parliamentary group leader, gave a eulogy for Kirk in the German Bundestag on September 17 and praised him in the highest terms. The same Alice Weidel, whose party regularly makes headlines with right-wing extremist scandals, extolled Kirk as a fighter for freedom of speech - while carefully concealing his most extreme positions.

The widow and her Oscar-worthy performance

Even before sunrise, tens of thousands streamed to the stadium. People with canes and walkers pushed their way through the crowd, families with children waited for hours in Arizona’s suffocating heat. Danney Tanner had driven 1,600 miles in his 1970 Chevy Chevelle with Stars-and-Stripes paint from Minnesota. This week he had added three new words to his car: “I am Charlie.”

Inside the stadium, a spectacle unfolded that was extraordinary even by American standards. Bagpipers intoned “Amazing Grace” next to an oversized portrait of Kirk, while Christian rock bands made the floors shake. The speakers spoke behind bulletproof glass - a security measure reminiscent of Super Bowl events.

Erika Kirk, the widow of the slain, delivered a performance that oscillated between deep grief and calculated political message. With a tear-choked voice, she described the moment when she saw her husband’s body - she had experienced “a level of heartbreak I did not even know existed.” Yet on his lips she saw “the faintest smile,” which told her that “Charlie did not suffer.”

Then came the moment that brought the audience to standing ovations: “I forgive him,” she said of Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old alleged perpetrator. “I forgive him, because that is what Christ did. The answer to hate is not hate.” The theatrical staging was fatally reminiscent of the calculated performances known from authoritarian movements - the widow as the new leading figure, forgiveness as a political weapon, Christian rhetoric as a cover for a hard power grab.

The merging of altar and government

What followed was a parade of high-ranking Trump administration officials who cloaked their political messages in religious rhetoric. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered an entire sermon on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spoke of the blood of Christ washing away sins and declared: “We always needed less government. But what Charlie understood and instilled in his movement is that we also needed much more God.”

Vice President JD Vance went even further and declared Kirk a martyr: “We must remember that he is a hero for the United States of America. And he is a martyr for the Christian faith.” The same rhetoric, the same glorification, the same instrumentalization of religion for political purposes - the pattern was identical to what the AfD practices in Germany.

The transatlantic alliance of extremists

The ties between Kirk and the AfD were not a one-way street. When the European Parliament debated a minute of silence for Kirk in September, it was the AfD that vehemently demanded it. Martin Sellner, the Austrian right-wing extremist with close ties to the AfD, tweeted indignantly: “The AfD wanted a minute of silence for Charlie Kirk. Denied by the leftist elite.” The AfD group in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament immediately used Kirk’s death for its own propaganda: “The assassination of Charlie Kirk shows: polarization and moral charging by the political Left endanger free speech.” The graphic they published with it - “His death concerns us all!” with a smiling Kirk in front of a blue-red AfD color backdrop - could have come from Kirk’s own propaganda apparatus.

See also our article: “Saint Charlie? - Beatrix von Storch glorifies a right-wing firebrand,” at: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/heiliger-charlie-beatrix-von-storch-verklaert-einen-rechten-brandstifter/

This international networking of the far-right is revealed in shocking clarity: Kirk defended the AfD against the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD instrumentalized Kirk’s death for its purposes, and at his memorial service American evangelicalism and political extremism merged into a toxic mix that finds its counterpart in the German right-wing populist movement.

Kirk and the AfD: ideological soulmates

The parallels between Kirk’s positions and those of the AfD are striking. Kirk called Islam a “danger to the United States” and spoke of its “conquest values.” The AfD constantly warns of an “Islamization” of Germany. Kirk was an advocate of the “replacement theory” - that antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims Jews are trying to replace white Americans with non-white immigrants. AfD politicians speak of the “Great Replacement” and “population exchange.”

Kirk called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a “mistake” and an “anti-white weapon.” AfD politicians like Björn Höcke speak of an alleged “cult of guilt” and demand a “180-degree turn in remembrance policy.” Kirk called for “Nuremberg trials” for doctors treating transgender patients - rhetoric whose historical blindness and tastelessness can hardly be surpassed and which finds its counterpart in AfD rhetoric against “gender ideology.”

The threats and the orchestrated hate

Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff in the White House, delivered perhaps the most disturbing speech of the day at the memorial service. With a fiery voice, he threatened Kirk’s “ideological opponents”: “You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk? You made him immortal. You have no idea what dragon you have awakened.”

This rhetoric of the “awakened dragon” and the coming revenge is identical to the language AfD politicians use when they speak of an impending “uprising of the decent” or a “conservative revolution.” It is the language of authoritarian movements that stage themselves as victims in order to justify violence.

Jack Posobiec, the far-right influencer known for spreading the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, shouted to the crowd: “Are you ready to put on the full armor of God? Now is the time!” The same apocalyptic rhetoric, the same mixing of religion and politics, the same mobilization for an imagined culture war - all of this can also be found in the speeches of AfD politicians at PEGIDA demonstrations or party congresses.

Trump, Musk and the rehabilitation of extremists

When President Trump finally took the stage, the event had long since turned from a memorial service into a political rally. In a remarkable side episode, Trump was filmed shaking hands with Elon Musk - their first public encounter since their bitter falling out in June. The reconciliation between the president and the billionaire at this event sends a devastating signal: even the most serious personal conflicts are settled when it comes to advancing the extremist agenda.

Voter registration at a “memorial service”

One detail revealed the true nature of the event: voter registration booths were set up in the stadium, staffed by Turning Point USA volunteers. Flyers with the inscription “Don’t just pray for change, vote for it!” lay next to the registration forms. The instrumentalization of a death for campaign purposes - also a tactic known from extremist movements worldwide.

The lost democracy

What happened on this September day in Arizona was more than an overblown memorial service. It was the manifestation of an America that has abandoned its democratic and secular foundations. The parallels to the German AfD are no coincidence, but an expression of a coordinated, transnational extremist movement.

When a German party, classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist suspected case, delivers eulogies for an American extremist in the Bundestag, when American government officials proclaim Christian messages of salvation from government podiums, when voters are mobilized for upcoming elections at memorial services - then both democracies have not only lost their orientation, but fundamentally forgotten what they once claimed to be.

The constant references to a nebulous enemy, the threats against “them” and “the Left,” the staging as martyrs and victims - all of this follows the script of authoritarian movements. That the AfD and Kirk’s movement supported and legitimized each other shows the international dimension of this threat.

America and parts of Europe are moving toward an abyss from which there is no quick return. The legal and social reappraisal of this era will take generations. Every lie must be documented, every violation of law prosecuted, every corruption exposed.

The transatlantic alliance of extremists that revealed itself on this day in Arizona and in the reactions from Germany is a warning: democracy does not die with a bang, but in stadiums full of cheering people applauding their own oppression.