Detail News

In May and June 2025, the Documentation Centre Political Islam (DPI) attended a number of events. An event on the topic of ‘Extremism in Europe - anti-Semitism and political Islam as a breeding ground for the terror of the future’ took place in the Austrian Parliament on 15 May 2025. It was organised by Campus Tivoli in cooperation with the ÖVP Parliamentary Club and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The keynote speech was given by Austrian EU Commissioner Magnus Brunner. The Documentation Centre and its director Lisa Fellhofer took part in a panel discussion. The focus was on strategies to prevent radicalisation and combat extremist narratives. Andreas Jacobs (Konrad Adenauer Foundation), Michal Cotler-Wunsh (Israel's Special Representative for Combating Anti-Semitism) and Nicolas Stockhammer (Danube University Krems) also took part in the discussion. DPI Director Fellhofer addressed the growing susceptibility of young people to radical ideologies and spoke out in favour of a clear stance against anti-Semitic tendencies - regardless of their religious or ideological background.

Lectures and knowledge exchange

On 20 May, experts from the Documentation Centre gave lectures at the University of Graz. The two guest lectures, which were organised by the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (ACIPSS) and the Sicher Leben association, focused on the topic of ‘Online Jihadism - Theological and Ideological Backgrounds of Islamist Influencers’. DPI lawyer Imet Mehmedi explained, among other things, how self-proclaimed preachers ideologically reinterpret Islamic concepts and where the differences lie between serious religious teaching and ideological propaganda. DPI speaker Amrei Martschinke shed light on how Islamist actors use social media to spread political ideologies that are directed against democracy, equality and pluralism.

Preventing extremism in the EU

In recent months, the DPI has taken part in meetings of the EU Knowledge Hub in Brussels, Lyon and Aalborg. It also co-chaired one of the panels. At the town hall meeting in the EU capital on the topic of ‘Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism - Challenges and Joint Responses Towards a New EU Agenda’, the DPI was represented by Deputy Director Ferdinand Haberl (panel co-lead). Alexander Weissenburger, Senior Researcher at the DPI, was a panel member at other events. The aim of the initiative is the European exchange of knowledge on extremism research, the development of recommendations for action for the European Commission and the analysis of current challenges, such as the increasing radicalisation in the online sector and among minors or religious-extremist aspects of hybrid conflicts.