Detail News

The new annual report summarizes the work of the fund and provides an overview of extremist religious-political movements.

The events following the Hamas terror on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent war have recently highlighted the importance of researching and documenting the structures and ideologies of political Islam throughout Europe. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict often serves Islamist actors as a vehicle for undifferentiated polarization and as a pretext for propagating extremist messages. Since its foundation three years ago, the Documentation Centre Political Islam has published 22 academic publications, including the current annual report 2022. Like the Fund's work, the reports have attracted interest beyond Austria, as many of the movements and developments investigated are transnational and do not stop at national borders.

Vigilance against all forms of extremism

"The events of recent weeks with demonstrations of sympathy for Hamas in Europe have shown that there is a need for constant dialogue with Islamist actors. They abuse religion for their ideology, which is why there can be no turning a blind eye, but rather a critical debate. Vigilance against anti-Semitism, discrimination, racism and other radical views means confronting the phenomena of religiously motivated political extremism with the same attention as, for example, right-wing extremism," says Lisa Fellhofer, Director of the Austrian Fund for the Documentation of Religiously Motivated Political Extremism.

Identity conflicts and targeted propaganda

Research and documentation activities have recently focused primarily on structures of Turkish origin in Austria and Islamist influencer groups in German-speaking countries. In the last Turkish election campaign in particular, increased activities and influence were identified in Austria via associations such as the Union of International Democrats (UID). The network acts as an extension of Erdogan and his AKP, also spreading problematic narratives about the Israel-Palestine conflict, including anti-Semitic stereotypes.

In the virtual space, Islamist groups - some of which are close to Hizb ut-Tahrir - instrumentalize identity conflicts and actual experiences of discrimination to spread anti-democratic and anti-minority messages in various media. Young people are targeted on social media channels and social counter-concepts are propagated that are incompatible with liberal-pluralistic democracy. Politicians and the media are accused of Islamophobia across the board in order to spread their own Islamist views and an "us versus them" narrative.

Challenges in connection with research into Islamism

Actors and associations from the spectrum of political Islam are increasingly trying to shape social discourse in their favour. There are often endeavours to prevent and distort debates initiated by researchers and academics from the outset. The Supreme Court (OGH) opposes such negative developments, stating in a ruling that public debates about Islam and organisations and actors associated with it are in the interests of society. With this in mind, the Fund has always confronted unobjective accusations with facts. The Documentation Centre has also sought a cooperative dialogue with Islamic associations in order to promote open-ended research, but so far there has been no serious interest in a joint investigation.

Annual Report 2022