Media - European Foundation for Democracy

Mention 08 September 2016

Who thinks for himself won’t be radicalised

EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour gave a keynote speech at an event hosted by the business association Unternehmerverbände Niedersachsen e.V.,which aimed at suggesting ways of integrating refugees into German society....

Mention 07 September 2016

Not being laughed at

EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is mentioned by the German taz on his laudatory speech for this year’s recipient of the Moses-Mendelssohn-Prize, Jérôme Boateng....

Article 07 September 2016

Rumiyah, ISIS’ magazine to conquer Rome

In her latest article on the so-called 'Islamic State' , EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo explains the differences between Dabiq, the magazine used bu IS to spread their ideology all over the world, and Rumiyah, the latest version of the magazine...

Mention 04 September 2016

UK courts should be able to issue Islamic divorces, sharia expert says

EFD Senior Fellow Elham Manea is mentioned by the British newspaper The Guardian on her efforts to ban Sharia courts in the UK....

Mention 02 September 2016

George Washington University hires former al-Qaeda recruiter

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino is mentioned by The News....

Mention 01 September 2016

George Washington University hires a former al-Qaeda recruiter

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino is interviewed by the Washington Post....

Mention 01 September 2016

Islam Expert: The Central Council of Muslims in Germany is complicit in radicalisation

EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is mentioned by The Huffington Post on his holding the Muslim associations co-responsible for the radicalisation of Muslims in Germany....

Mention 01 September 2016

Turkey’s Fight Against Kurds in Syria Possible Due to Deal With Russia

“Turkish jets were not even allowed in Syria after the downing of the Russian jet in 2015,” said EFD Senior Policy Advisor Dr. Demir Murat Seyrek in an interview to the Epoch Times regarding Turkey's military operations in Syria....

Mention 31 August 2016

“We’re not being clear on which values we want to convey”

Only if we engage in a dialogue about the values of our society will we be able to convey to immigrants what behaviour our society can tolerate, EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour notes in this interview with Deutschlandfunk....

Interview 31 August 2016

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Dr. Demir Murat Seyrek on HaberTurk TV

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Dr. Demir Murat Seyrek is interviewed by HaberTurk TV on the latest developments regarding Turkey-EU relations after the Turkey coup attempt....

Mention 31 August 2016

Former Al Qaeda extremist will join George Washington University’s program studying terrorism

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino is interviewed by the Daily News....

Mention 30 August 2016

Dr Bakary Sambe on the double citizenship debate – a debate made of policy strategies

During the preparations of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, which will be held in Mali next September, EFD Senior Fellow Bakary Sambe has described as regrettable and nonsense the controversy about the double citizenship of the candidates in Senegal’s presidential election....

Article 28 August 2016

What we can demand from immigrants

In this contribution for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour and co-chair of the German Green party Cem Özdemir claim that the German government is not prepared to tackle radical Islam. Integrating the refugees in Germany is already a gigantic task and it is time to learn from the mistakes that have been made in the past, they urge....

Article 26 August 2016

The Islamic NGO, that has raised many suspicions in the past, is also among the volunteers

EFD Senior Fellow Dr. Valentina Colombo is mentioned by the well known Italian newspaper Il Giornale....

Article 25 August 2016

The Burkini Trap

EFD Senior Fellow Dr. Valentina Colombo writes for the Italian magazine Grazia on the controversial decision of the French authorities to ban 'burkinis', the full bathing suit Muslim women wear on the beach if they want to cover their bodies....

Article 24 August 2016

UCOII’s ‘global terrorist’ imams will fool Alfano

Through the online newspaper Informazione Corretta, EFD Senior Fellow Dr. Valentina Colombo gives a detailed explanation regarding the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Italy....

Article 21 August 2016

Headscarves and burkinis limit women’s freedom – it is not always a matter of free choice

EFD Senior Fellow Dr. Valentina Colombo is interviewed by Il Giornale di Sicilia on the latest bans imposed by the French authorities on Muslim women wearing 'burkinis'....

Article 11 August 2016

Behind polygamy is the [Italian law] ‘8×1000’

EFD Senior Fellow Dr Valentina Colombo expresses her concerns regarding a petition launched and signed by many within the Muslim community in Italy, a petition that Dr. Colombo claims to raise many issues....

Article 04 August 2016

‘Misleaded Christians’: the most controversial surah recited by Imams during a Sunday prayer

EFD Senior Fellow Dr. Valentina Colombo explains that many Quranic verses can be misinterpreted and misleading....

Mention 03 August 2016

Conference: evolving shades of jihadism – ISIS in Europe

At the conference 'ISIS in Europe' a panel of scholars and security experts tackled the interlinked issues of jihadi radicalization and terrorism in Europe from both a sociological and security perspective....

Mention 02 August 2016

May needs to wake up to the reality of Sharia

While she was home secretary, Theresa May set up an independent inquiry into the operation of Islamic law in the UK as administered by Sharia courts or councils....

Article 01 August 2016

‘Break the Cross’, ISIS wages war on Christians

EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo comments on the latest (15th) issue of the Islamic State's propaganda magazine, Dabiq, titled "Break the Cross"....

Mention 01 August 2016

London conference calls for challenging organisations using Islam for their political goals

Dr Lorenzo Vidino, EFD Senior Policy Advisor and Director of the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University's Center for Cyber & Homeland Security, provided a telling example from Italy where government is putting sufficient resources into counter-extremism but that these a focussed on a hard approach to punish suspects...

Article 30 July 2016

Islam And Integration, How The Seeds For Terror Take Root

In this guest contribution for Worldcrunch, EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour highlights the connections between recent terror attacks in Germany and what he refers to as an “undemocratic behaviour based on cultural sensitivities”, such as the latest case of an imam denying his son’s teacher a handshake, because she is female....

Mention 29 July 2016

Germany: Welcome wears thin

Experts fear Germans could fall into the Isis trap by turning against refugees. “If we overreact, we risk pushing Muslims into the arms of radical Islamist ideologies,” says Alexander Ritzmann....

Article 29 July 2016

What role do Muslims have in building a secular UK?

"When people learn I run a secularist charity, many are confused about what secularism means and its consequences for non-Christians in the UK."...

Article 28 July 2016

We must recognize the mistakes made by Jihad as well as our own errors

"The latest terror attack that struck Europe, the first that brutally aimed at killing a priest, but the last of a long series of attacks, must lead us to reflect on what has happened,its root causes, its consequences, the mistakes that were made, which cannot ever be repeated. Two Muslim intellectuals have lodged appeals that go precisely in this direction"....

Mention 27 July 2016

Fresh concerns raised about Sharia Courts in Britain

EFD Senior Fellow Elham Manea was due to testify before the inquiry on July 27th 2016, but released a statement where she explains her reasons not to provide evidence, which has been reported by the The News Hub....

Interview 27 July 2016

Isis and the slaughtered priest: decades of underestimated propaganda

"The attack occurred in a church near the French city of Rouen, which left one priest dead, demonstrates once more how unprepared we are to deal with the 'extremism emergency' "....

Interview 27 July 2016

Terror expert: Europe can survive ISIS without electing nutjobs

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Alexander Ritzmann is interviewed by EuroActiv in the wake of the recent attacks Germany has been witnessing...

Press Release 26 July 2016

Statement by Elham Manea

Statement by Elham Manea, Senior Fellow, European Foundation for Democracy and Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Zurich University regarding the UK government’s review of Sharia law in England and Wales. Elham Manea was to testify in London on Wednesday 27th July to the Independent Review into the application of Sharia Law in England and Wales. With regret and after much consideration she decided not to provide evidence to the Shar...

Article 26 July 2016

Those who are talking about fast-track radicalisation don’t have a clue

In this guest contribution for Die Welt, EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour talks about the terrorist attack which occurred on a train in Würzburg (Germany) in July 2016. There is no such thing as ‘fast-track’ radicalisation, Mansour argues. The will to commit a terror attack doesn’t simply manifest from one day to another. Radicalisation is a process that is facilitated by certain mindsets which are often deeply rooted in religious beli...

Broadcast 25 July 2016

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Alexander Ritzmann on Sky News

EFD Senior Policy Advisor Alexander Ritzmann is interviewed by Sky News on German security policy after the latest terrorist attacks in Würzburg and Ansbach....

Mention 25 July 2016

Mass killing of elephants: Will the EU go on turning a blind eye?

Every year, 30,000 elephants are killed for their tusks according to Fondation Franz Weber, a Swiss-based NGO campaigning against the ivory trade for over 40 years, writes Willy Fautre....

Article 25 July 2016

Valentina Colombo’s comment: political Islam

After the military coup attempt that led Turkey into a political turmoil, EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo recommends the Italian government to adopt a harder line with mosques that accept funding from other countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia....

Interview 22 July 2016

What is the ‘people’s government’ according to the Muslim Brotherhood

EFD Senior Fellow Dr Valentina Colombo is interviewed by the well known Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Erdogan's political strategy implemented after the recent failed coup attempt....