Research on Radical Islam in Germany and Europe

Within the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funding programme "Societal Causes and Effects of Radical Islam in Germany and Europe", twelve projects are conducting research on the many facets of the phenomenon of radical Islam: What are the reasons for the increase in Islamist tendencies in the German-speaking and European areas? How do Islamist movements affect specific social groups or society as a whole? And what are the implications of these findings for the work of prevention practitioners, politicians and administrators, civil society, security authorities, and the media? Researchers from many different disciplines are investigating these and other questions from a wide variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives in the period from 2020 to 2025.

This website pools the activities and results of the individual research projects. In addition, it provides cross-project findings generated by networking and dialogue-based collaboration within the RADIS knowledge transfer project.

RADIS Transfer Conference 2025

After more than four years of intensive research, the RADIS research network presented its findings to a broad audience. 

Read the report

RADIS Interdisciplinary Symposium 2024

The report and further impressions of our Interdisciplinary Symposium 2024 on February 22 & 23, 2024 at ZIF Bielefeld.

Second funding phase from 2026: BMBF-guideline for the funding of research projects on Islamism

The BMBF is providing a further 15 million euros for research into Islamism. Applications can now be submitted for the second funding phase from 2026.

Further information on the announcement in German can be found here.

What have the research projects worked on so far?

As part of #InsideRADIS, we visited the twelve research projects and let the scientists have their say. In short interviews, they gave us insights into their research and explained the approaches they use and the challenges that characterise their work.

All conversations

Clusters across projects

Being the core of RADIS, the clusters enable researchers to engage in discussion beyond their own individual projects and teams, to learn from each other, and to establish new collaborations. At the same time, these working groups represent important research threads of the research programme.

Learn more about the clusters

Current English publications

  • Demmrich, Sarah/Şenel, Abdulkerim (2025): Entitativity as a moderator? A brief report unraveling the relations between deprivation, fundamentalism, and radicalization. In: Current Psychology [Download]
    Project: Ressentiment
  • Sponholz, Liriam/Meuth, Anna-Maria (2025) How do events shape the media agenda on Islam and Muslims in Western Europe? An analysis of news events in Germany, the UK and France (2000–2020). In: Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 11, 1-12. [Download]
    Project: RaMi

Expert Discussion in Brussels: Crisis Talk

Insights into the Crisis Talk "The ageless scourge of antisemitism and the protection of Jewish life in Europe – What can we do?" on March 5, 2024 at the Hessian State Representation in Brussels.

Overview of the Research Projects

  • The Impact of Radical Islam on Jewish Life in Germany (ArenDt)
  • Religious conflicts of interpretation and outbidding in the global field of Salafism (Power of Interpretation / Deutungsmacht)
  • “German Islam” as an Alternative to Islamism? (D:Islam)
  • Structural Causes of Approaching and Distancing from Islamist Radicalisation (Distance / Distanz)
  • Configurations of social and political practices in dealing with radical Islam (KURI)
  • Optimised crisis communication after attacks with Islamist background in Germany (OKAI)
  • Radicalisation and Spaces (RadiRa)
  • From the Margins to the Centre (RaMi)
  • Ressentiment as the affective Basis of Radicalisation (Ressentiment)
  • Radical Islam versus radical Anti-Islam (RIRA)
  • Causes and Effects of radical Islam from the perspective of Islamic theologians (UWIT)
  • Interdependencies of Islamist radicalisation and the societal and political context (Interdependencies / Wechselwirkungen)