Media - European Foundation for Democracy

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....

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....

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....

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...

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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"....

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....

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....

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...

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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...

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”....

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....

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....

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...

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

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....

Broadcast 04 December 2015

Why young people become Islamists

EFD Programme Director Ahmad Mansour is a guest on German TV show aspekte. He talks about his book Generation Allah and elaborates on the reasons why young people distance themselves from the values of the societies in which they grew up in....

Article 01 December 2015

Could downed warplane contain Russian aggression?

EFD Senior Policy Advisor, Demir Murat Seyrek and Amanda Paul of the European Policy Centre, write about the downing of the Russian warplane on 24 November by Turkey, as well its implications for Turkey-Russia relations and the already waning relations between Russia and the West as a whole....