D:ISLAM – Deutscher Islam als Alternative zum Islamismus?
Funding information
The Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration Research (BIM) at the Humboldt University of Berlin has been awarded funding of €701,481.61 for a 3-year research project within the framework of the BMBF measure "Societal Causes and Effects of Radical Islam in Germany and Europe".
Germany and Europe".
Within the framework of the announcement, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding a total of 24 research projects (six individual projects and seven collaborations) to the tune of around €15 million in two main thematic areas:
On the one hand, the social causes of the rise of Islamism in Germany and Europe are being investigated, and on the other hand, the social effects of Islamism in Germany and Europe.
In addition, the transfer project is being supported by the RADIS joint project, which will
which links the research projects internally and externally, brings together scientific findings
and practice-oriented transfer of results and knowledge, as well as public relations work.The project "German Islam as an Alternative to Islamism? Answers to Islamist Threats in Muslim Associations, Communities and Lifeworlds // D:Islam" is funded in thematic area II: "Societal Effects of Islamism".
It is located in the Department of Integration Research and Social Policy of the BIM and will be carried out over the next three years together with the practice partner "Alhambra Society" as participatory
research.
Title and practice partner
The project "German Islam as an Alternative to Islamism? Answers to Islamist Threats in Muslim Associations, Communities and Lifeworlds // D:Islam" is funded in thematic field II: "Societal Effects of Islamism".
It is located in the Department of Integration Research and Social Policy of the BIM and will be carried out over the next three years together with the practice partner "Alhambra Society" as participatory
research.
Project description
Research on Islamism in Germany centers around attitude surveys, security and communication aspects, as well as psychological and theological issues and international relations.
From a social science perspective, the impact of Islamism on Muslim communities is under-researched. Here we see a research gap that needs to be filled. Islamists build up pressure on Muslim communities through various strategies, for example, by accusing mosque associations in the diaspora of having lost access to "true Islam" or by aggressively courting young people in clubs and schools or, for example, by bringing missionary material and distributing it free of charge.
In order to manipulate and recruit community members with them. The strategies used by Muslim associations, (mosque) clubs and individual Muslim initiatives and individuals to deal with the phenomenon of Islamism vary.
with the phenomenon of Islamism vary in nature.
They include educational measures and coaching for community members as well as attempts to expel Islamists from the community or to integrate them into community structures in order to neutralize their influence.
In some cases, external help is also sought, which gives rise to new prevention structures such as counseling hotlines, deradicalization training, and self-help or dropout groups.
Research questions
The D:Islam project will address the research questions of:
- Whether Muslim communities are exposed to threats from Islamist phishing strategies and how these threats shape up;
- Whether and with what defense strategies they respond to them;
- Whether, in the course of their responses, hybridization processes in the practice of Islamic faith
and the expression of a Muslim identity that point to a "German Islam".
Module 1 - Phishing Strategies
The specific threat posed to Muslim communities by Islamist recruitment strategies is explored in Module 1, in which (1) online strategies are studied by means of Big Data and discourse network analyses and (2) offline strategies are studied by means of expert interviews with actors in the field of
prevention and deradicalization work.
Module 2 - Defense Strategies
In addition, Module II, based on 80 qualitative interviews conducted nationwide, examines the defense strategies of Muslim communities (associations, (mosque) clubs, Muslim individual initiatives and individuals).
initiatives and individuals) in response to the threat of radicalization and Islamism.
Module 3 - Hybridization Forms / German Islam
Parallel to the mapping of the threat potentials of Islamism for the different community actors and the analysis of community reactions, the project team will investigate questions of hybridization of Islam in Module III. Analogous to historical forms of adaptation of Islam, in which in different contexts there is talk of a "Turkish Islam," "Indonesian Islam," or even a "French Islam," etc., the project will examine whether a specific form of a "German Islam" is recognizable and, if so, how it is articulated.
The research question that will also be pursued in this project is whether a "German Islam" is perceived as an externally enforced concept - keyword: imposed "state Islam" - or whether the concept can be explained by a diasporic hybridization that possibly also arises from demarcations against Islamism or religious controls from the former countries of origin.
Methods
The approach is multi-methodological: quantitative big data and discourse network analyses combined with qualitative expert interviews with actors in prevention and deradicalization work, mapping of the potential dangers of Islamism for different community actors, and qualitative analysis of community reactions, as well as comparative narrative and discourse analyses (e.g. on French, British, Dutch or Turkish Islam) serve to address the research questions in the three modules.
Project goal
The aim of the project is to work out the contours of a "German Islam" that seeks to establish itself in the field of tension between Islamist and anti-Muslim threats. The project results will be transferred into the development of prevention measures together with Muslim communities threatened by radicalization and Islamism and the Alhambra Society.
Research team
Project Manager:
Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan, BIM, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Co-Project Manager:
Dr. Özgür Özvatan, BIM, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Associates:
Emeti Alisch, Nader Hotait, Rami Ali, Fatima El Sayed, Bastian Neuhauser
Student Assistants:
Enes Saydam, Ida Büsch
Project manager for the Alhambra company:
Dr. Aydın Süer, Berliner Institut für Islamische Theologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
* * *