Media
Mention
20 January 2016
The fight against extremism is a societal obligation
Frankfurter Neue Presse reports on a presentation by EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour on his book "Generation Allah". In his presentation, Mansour discusses the solid structures of Salafism that have manifested within German society and how an education of fear is used as a basis for radicalisation....
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Article
19 January 2016
Call for urgent rethink on EU policies aimed at tackling extremism
EFD Senior Fellow Magnus Norell comments on the extremist threat of extremism that the EU has faced in 2015 and will most likely face for the duration in 2016....
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Mention
19 January 2016
Carl von Ossietzky Prize 2016 is awarded to Ahmad Mansour
The City of Oldenburg reports on the decision to award EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour with the Carl von Ossietzky Prize for 2016....
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Mention
19 January 2016
Palestinian psychologist receives Carl von Ossietzky Prize
Focus Online reports on the projects that EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is currently involved in and announces the awarding of the Carl von Ossietzky Prize for 2016 to Mansour for his promotion of democracy, tolerance and integration....
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Article
19 January 2016
The goals and challenges of deradicalisation work
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour explains why it is important to draw a distinct line between preventative and deradicalisation work. At the same time, he stresses that both approaches are interlinked and illustrates his analysis based on examples....
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Mention
18 January 2016
“We’re all speaking at once, I would like to bring about a calmer discussion”
Spiegel Online reports on the contents of German talk show Anne Will, in which EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour was invited to discuss issues related to the migration crisis.
In light of the New Year’s Eve incidents in several European cities, the current German asylum policy was debated by Mansour, along with political scientist, Gesine Schwan, head of the German chancellory (CDU), Peter Altmaier and editor-in-chief of Welt24, Stefan Aust...
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Interview
18 January 2016
5 measures for the integration of young Muslims
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about concrete measures for the integration of young Muslims into mainstream society. He elaborates on five distinct steps that should be undertaken by politicians and civil society....
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Article
17 January 2016
Prevention is needed urgently
Following the recent New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne and other European cities, EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo stresses the need for integration and control of the most sensitive immigrant groups into our societies....
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Broadcast
17 January 2016
Time for a new asylum policy after Cologne?
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is a guest on German television talk show Anne Will, where he discusses recent calls in Germany for a new asylum policy after the New Year’s Eve incidents in Cologne....
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Broadcast
14 January 2016
The image of women held by men from immigrant families
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour talks about the questionable image of women that prevails in certain understandings of Islam and how it is deeply rooted in patriarchal structures....
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Article
13 January 2016
Prevent and Channel
EFD Fellow Tehmina Kazi writes about the importance of education and counter-narrative in counter-extremism programs, which she finds more fruitful than a strategy focused on surveillance and repression....
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Article
13 January 2016
The terminus. A wretched agreement
EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino highlights the failures of fifteen years of AKP in Turkey, both in domestic and foreign policy....
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Interview
12 January 2016
Bombs alone don’t help
In this interview, EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour talks about the dangers of a polarised society in the light of increasing radicalisation and why he thinks democracy in Germany is under threat....
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Mention
11 January 2016
Sharia law: a question of judgement
EFD Fellow Tehmina Kazi is mentioned in an article on the New Humanist. The article refers to her distinction between sharia as "a code of ethics governing personal religious practice" and sharia as "a set of prescriptive rules for society at large"....
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Article
11 January 2016
Where does the Islamic hatred for women come from?
EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo comments on the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne and other European cities. She references the sexual assaults during the Tahrir square protests in 2011 and compares them to the New Year’s eve attacks. Valentina states that the cultural and social backgrounds of the men involved are the same....
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Interview
09 January 2016
What remains is the macho posture
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour comments on the New Year’s Eve attacks on women in the German city of Cologne. Analysing the occurrences from a psychological perspective, Mansour detects deficiencies related to gender perception as one of the underlying causes for the events....
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Mention
08 January 2016
Call to battle rallies misfits to ISIS cause
US-based media website TribLIVE writes about the so-called Islamic State and the challenge that it poses to America in comparison to threats faced by the US in the past, including conventional adversaries and non-conventional threats like al-Qaida. Vidino is quoted for his expertise in examining the dangerous ideology of the Islamic State and for his views on what separates this from previous threats, highlighting that this factor makes it one of...
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Article
08 January 2016
Democratic safeguards and growing figures. Intelligence’s flops are inevitable
EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino explains the objective difficulties that European intelligence apparatuses face in monitoring the increasing number of radicalised citizens who could move from mere jihadi propaganda on the web to downright terrorist attacks....
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Broadcast
08 January 2016
How do we deal with delinquent asylum seekers?
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about the New Year’s Eve attacks on women in Cologne (Germany). He elaborates on prevalent problems with gender perceptions and how this is conditioned by patriarchal structures....
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Mention
08 January 2016
Islamism also originates in Brussels, Berlin and Winterthur
Der Landbote reports on a reading held by EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour of his book "Generation Allah" in Switzerland, where the issue of young people leaving the country to join the Islamic State has long been a reality....
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Mention
08 January 2016
Syrian refugees are worried about their reputation
Stern magazine reports on the New Year’s Eve attacks on women in Cologne (Germany) and cites EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour with regards to the discussion on why it is important to have a balanced debate, look after the victims and avoid stereotyping....
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Interview
07 January 2016
Between extremes
In this interview, EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour talks about his personal experience with regards to the process of deradicalisation and why it is so important to create counter-narratives for young people who are at risk of becoming radicalised....
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Article
07 January 2016
Sweden, the EU, and Barriers to a Two-State Solution
EFD Policy Advisor Magnus Norell writes about Sweden's recent decision to recognise the State of Palestine. In his analysis, he highlights that the decision is based on the Swedish administration's justification that, "The international law criteria for the recognition of the State of Palestine have been satisfied," indicating that, "there is a territory, albeit with non-defined borders. There is also a population. And there is a government with...
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Article
03 January 2016
Saudi Arabia rekindles the conflict with Shiites
EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo comments on the mass execution of 47 people in Saudi Arabia that took place on 2nd January 2016. According to Valentina Colombo, this day could go down in history as “the day in which Saudi Arabia has officially and wittingly rekindled the threat of the international Sunni-Shia conflict”....
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Mention
02 January 2016
Generation Allah
The Austrian Südkurier reports on the fear of radicalisation of young people in Germany and on the book "Generation Allah" that was written by EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour. The article elaborates on the missionary work undertaken to convert and radicalise young people to Islamism and why long-term preventative work is the only solution to this problem....
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Article
02 January 2016
Propaganda and recruitments – Albania, a meeting point for jihadists
“Although there has always been a secular and moderate Islam in the South-West Balkans, 20 years of Islamist propaganda have lured part of the Albanian Muslims” into becoming radicalised, says EFD Senior Policy Advisor Lorenzo Vidino....
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Article
30 December 2015
Sweden and the Peace Process – A Strained Relationship
EFD Senior Policy Advisor, Magnus Norell, writes about the relationship between Sweden and Israel which he says has become increasingly strained due to a number factors, most notably the Swedish government's recent recognition of the state of Palestine - the first major EU country to do so. Though receiving strong condemnation from Israel, Sweden argued that recognising Palestine as a state would facilitate more balanced (state-to-state) negotiat...
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Mention
27 December 2015
Conversion
Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on different events held in November and December 2015 that were attended by EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour. By providing an overview of Mansour's current projects, the article portrays his commitment to his work as a social worker, psychologist, author and expert....
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Interview
16 December 2015
The personal guest – Ahmad Mansour, out of the undertow of fundamentalism
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about his personal background, including his experiences with Islamism and explains how he managed to break-out from its undertow....
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Interview
15 December 2015
Islamists are racists!
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about the segregation of the sexes in certain understandings of Islam and why it is racist to label Islamism as a peripheral matter while recognising right-wing extremism as a problem within mainstream society....
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Interview
14 December 2015
The task of a century
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about the attacks in Paris on November 13th and why the task of winning back radicalised youth is a task for society as a whole....
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Interview
11 December 2015
If we lose them it will get uncomfortable here
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about the process of radicalisation among young people and the offers they receive from Islamist groups who radicalise them....
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Interview
07 December 2015
Islamism conveys the feeling of belonging to an elite
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about the expected verdict against two men from Wolfsburg (Germany), who were arrested following their return from fighting for the Islamic State....
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Interview
06 December 2015
Those who wait until Islamism turns into violence have already lost
EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is interviewed about Islamism and explains why the definition of this term has to be extended to include not only those who are actively committing violence, but those whose religious understanding does not comply with the fundamental values of the societies in which they live....
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Article
04 December 2015
International community urged to do more to tackle the ideology of Islamic extremism
The Brussels Times summarises the issues addressed at the EFD policy briefing "Sharing best practices in countering violent extremism". It highlights the event's aim to set the agenda with regard to tackling today's prevalent challenges related to radicalisation by taking effective preventive measures on a policy level....
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Interview
04 December 2015
Turkey refuses to apologise and Putin’s options are limited
EFD Senior Policy Advisor Dr Demir Murat Seyrek is interviewed live on Al Jazeera on Turkey-Russia crisis on downed warplane....
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