New initiative to combat Islamist radicalisation

type:
News
, Topic:
Security
, Date:
01 October 2024

Federal Minister Faeser launches a Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation, which will start by focusing on the radicalisation of young people online.

Source: Henning Schacht

With the deadly attacks that took place in Mannheim and Solingen last summer, the most violent form of Islamism has come to the fore once again. In response to this, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) has adopted a security package which not only includes legislative measures but will also intensify work on preventing radicalisation, establishing a Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation. The task force held its first meeting today at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community.

Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation – a team of practitioners and researchers

At the first meeting of the task force, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser welcomed a team of nine members drawn from the academic community, civil society organisations, and government authorities. Over the next two years, this team will work hard to develop recommendations on combating radicalisation through prevention and disengagement work.

Federal Minister Faeser said: “The threat from Islamist terrorism is high. We are using all instruments at our disposal under the constitution to prevent Islamist violence. Increasingly we are seeing young offenders who have been radicalised online, especially through chat groups. We must identify and stop these radicalisation processes more quickly to prevent more young people from becoming radicalised in the first place. To do this, we not only need to work with the security authorities, but also with representatives from civil society organisations and the academic community. And so, as part of our current security package, I have set up an interdisciplinary Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation, which will work to develop new and effective recommendations and measures to prevent radicalisation.”

The aim of the Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation is to develop specific recommendations as part of a continuous process, working together with academics and practitioners from government authorities and civil society organisations. These recommendations will constantly feed into the work of all those involved in prevention and will form the basis for relevant measures. The core interdisciplinary team of the task force will present measures and recommendations to the Federal Interior Minister and her State Secretaries in a briefing to be held every six months. The members of the core team are:

• Dr. Julian Junk, Leibniz Institut für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (PRIF) 
• Dr. Michael Kiefer, Osnabrück University
• Dr. Mouhanad Khorchide, University of Münster
• Claudia Dantschke, Grüner Vogel e.V.
• Thomas Mücke, Violence Prevention Network gGmbH
• Jamuna Oehlmann, National Committee on Religiously Extremism (BAG RelEX)
• Lisa Borchardt, state criminal police office of Lower Saxony
• Florian Endres, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)
• Dominik Irani, state criminal police office of Bavaria

In coordination with the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, the core team will bring in additional experts for consultation on particular subjects.

: Inaugural meeting of the Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation …

Inaugural meeting of the Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation

Source: Henning Schacht

Focus on online radicalisation

The task force will initially focus on countering the radicalisation of young people online in the context of the current security situation. The internet plays an ever-increasing role in the Islamist radicalisation of very young people. For a long time, it has been clear that messaging services such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Telegram, and especially the video platform TikTok, are increasingly used to spread Islamist and Salafist propaganda. Islamists and Salafists use social media to target especially young and vulnerable users to persuade them of their ideology, and to radicalise, mobilise and recruit them. In order to counter this development, the Task Force to Prevent Islamist Radicalisation will focus initially on the role of digital and social media in the process of radicalising young people, and will develop new approaches for effective secondary and tertiary prevention online.