25 German non-governmental organisations active in the prevention of religiously-driven radicalisation and violence have come together to create a new coordination body. The Federal Working Committee on Religiously Motivated Extremism, founded on November 30 in Berlin, seeks to pool expertise and best practices from a range of actors engaged on the ground.1 Capacity building among…
What exactly is Salafism? In continental Europe, the word is now used as a catchall for extreme and violent interpretations of Islam. This week for example, authorities in the German state of Hesse raided five premises including a mosque; it was the latest move in a crackdown on ultra-militant forms of Islam all over Germany which began last…
Model project on prevention The Ministry of Justice in the state of Hesse has ended its cooperation with an Imam working as a prison chaplain at a correctional facility in the city of Darmstadt. Authorities reacted to advice given by the German domestic intelligence agency (the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Bundesamt für…
Political correctness in prisons is allowing extremism to flourish because guards are too afraid of confronting Muslims, a report has found. A review into Islamist extremism in the British justice system has found that “cultural sensitivity” towards Muslim prisoners is preventing staff “challenging unacceptable extremist behaviour and views”. The report, by Ian Acheson, a former…
A forthcoming Ministry of Justice report will argue that Muslim chaplains are part of the radicalisation problem in UK prisons. Quoted in the Sunday Times, an anonymous Whitehall official has described Deobandi Sunni chaplains as holding views “contrary to British values and human rights” and as “unlikely to aid [in] deradicalisation”, with the potential to…
