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Director Fellhofer: “It is important to promote dialogue at all levels, to inform and to raise awareness accordingly.”

The Austrian Fund for the Documentation of Religiously Motivated Political Extremism (Documentation Centre Political Islam) is engaged in an ongoing exchange with personalities from the public, academic and civil society sectors throughout Austria. During a recent visit to Linz, the board of the fund met with representatives of the Upper Austrian government, among others. Central topics were not only the structures of political Islam in Upper Austria, but also the spread of Islamist ideologies – for example, through influencers in the online sector who specifically address young target groups. Some mosque congregations in Linz are traditionally conservative, there is less preaching in German, and in the past there has been repeated disparagement of other religions.

Talks at regional and local level

“Extremisms in various forms endanger social cohesion. With the scientific research and documentation of the phenomenon of political Islam as a focus, the fund supports democratic awareness and coexistence in Austria. It is necessary and decisive to enter into dialogue and take problematic situations seriously, especially at regional and local level. Regular exchange with the federal provinces is therefore a special concern of the Fund,” says Lisa Fellhofer, Director of the Documentation Centre for Political Islam.

Apart from Upper Austria, the Documentation Centre also regularly exchanges information with the other federal provinces. In the current year 2023, talks took place in Eisenstadt, where a settlement project of the sect-like Anastasia movement caused a stir in the previous year.