Principal Investigators:
Academic Staff:
Duration: 09/2020 – 08/2023
Islamism represents a considerable challenge both for the non-Muslim majority society and for Muslim communities in Germany. It has long been argued that Islamist actors are deliberately trying to delegitimise Muslim communities under the guise of supposed betrayal and to brand alternative lifestyles as un-Islamic.
The project D:Islam investigated the effects of Islamism on Muslim communities in Germany and whether a “German Islam” has emerged beyond normative or political guidelines in communities, associations and civil society. It also examined the nature and contours of this development within the tense interplay between anti-Muslim racism and Islamist extremism.
The project followed a mixed-methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Islamist phishing strategies and digital radicalisation mechanisms were examined using 3,000 TikTok videos from Muslim content creators. Among other aspects, the narrative strategies of extremist and deradicalisation-oriented social media accounts were compared in terms of narrative persuasion. In addition, the project conducted qualitative interviews with six Muslim women's organisations to document their experiences with anti-Muslim racism and religiously motivated extremism. The social negotiation of a “German Islam” was then examined as a response to revisionist and essentialist-particularist interpretations of Islamism.
The study shows that the future of a “German Islam” depends crucially on social negotiation processes. While Islamist and anti-Muslim movements are trying to prevent the development of a pluralistic model of Islam in Germany, Muslim communities are actively shaping alternative identity models. The digital world is playing an increasingly important role in this. It is not only a place of radicalisation, but also a platform for innovative Islamic advocacy work.
Topic Area (1) Islamist-extremist phishing strategies examined how these actors attempt to recruit members in Muslim communities online.
The analysis showed that Islamist actors specifically use social media platforms, especially TikTok, to recruit young Muslims. They rely on algorithmic reinforcement through personalised content that specifically addresses insecurities and experiences of exclusion. It is also evident that Islamist online strategies are not aimed at those willing to radicalise, but at those already radicalised to further consolidate their ideology. In doing so, exclusive knowledge and specific ideological assumptions are used.
Topic Area (2) Community Defense focused on how Muslim communities respond to attempts at Islamist influence. The focus was on how Muslim women's organisations deal with threats.
The analysis showed that Muslim women's organisations are highly affected by anti-Muslim racism. This manifests itself on a discursive level, for example through subtle or explicitly expressed prejudices, mistrust and general suspicion, defamation and slander. On a material level, this can be seen, for example, in the rejection of funding applications.
Islamist influence was perceived less as an acute threat. In contrast, some organisations reported attempts by Islamist actors to defame or instrumentalise their work.
Strategies for dealing with Islamist actors include confrontation, refusing to respond, deleting social media posts and raising awareness within communities and vulnerable groups.
Finally, Topic Area 3: “German Islam” integrated the previous two areas to generate empirically grounded insights into the theorisation of “German Islam”. The results show that the genesis of a “German Islam” is significantly influenced by social conflicts. This produces a polarised dynamic between anti-Muslim racism and Islamist extremism. While Islamist actors propagate the narrative of a “betrayed Islam”, anti-Muslim actors use the idea of a “foreign Islam” to justify exclusionary discourses.
Technological transformations, in particular algorithmically enhanced radicalisation strategies, play a decisive role in this. Digital Islamic advocacy thus serves as an important counterbalance by fostering hybrid negotiation processes that embrace ambivalence.
![[Translate to Englisch:] Logo D:Islam](/fileadmin/Daten/Bilder/Logos_450_200/Dislam_450_200.jpg)