Under the umbrella of RADIS, 12 projects have conducted interdisciplinary research into the causes and effects of Islamism in Germany and Europe, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). We spoke to Sina Tultschinetski, project coordinator of the RADIS transfer project, about publications and further plans.
Sina Tultschinetski is project coordinator of the BMFTR transfer project RADIS
PRIF
We are very happy to finally be able to hold the anthology in our hands. Several years of intensive research and a lot of passion have gone into the volume, and it's great to see the results of this valuable work in black and white. Parallel to the completion of the volume, we have also published an abstract, which is freely available for download on our website, to make the findings more accessible not only to academic circles, but also to politicians and civil society.
Most of the studies in the volume look at the German context and the very specific political, historical and social developments in Germany. However, there are also projects that have explicitly worked on an international comparative basis, in some cases beyond the European area. And some of the analyses in Germany and the options for action derived from them can certainly be transferred to other European countries - but always taking into account the respective national and regional differences and particularities.
Many approaches to preventing radicalisation can be said to be transferable to other countries in terms of their basic assumptions, as they are based on universal principles such as promoting integration, social participation and building resilience to extremist ideologies. However, the success of such programs often depends on local implementation and specific circumstances.
The English version of our website contains various English-language publications from the research network's projects. We also organize international workshops to disseminate the network's findings throughout Europe and beyond.
We are also currently working on the English version of the anthology and the summary. And we are not only translating the abstract into English, but also into French, Turkish and Arabic. In this way, we hope to reach even more interested parties in politics and civil society - both inside and outside Germany.
As our project is coming to the end of its term, we have mainly organized many final events for the various research projects over the past year. At our transfer conference in April 2025, we were able to discuss the overarching findings and perspectives of the research network with politicians and network partners from academia and practice. In June, our information desk at the German Prevention Congress (Deutscher Präventionstag) gave us the opportunity to engage in even more dialogue with prevention experts.
We are currently running our third series of webtalks on the topic of "Hit Places - local strategies for dealing with Islamist and racist violence", which we are organizing in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education and ufuq.de. The webtalk series started on 11 November and will run until March 2026. The webtalk series focuses on how cities and civil society deal with the consequences of Islamist and racist attacks and what local strategies for solidarity, remembrance and prevention are emerging.
We are still planning a number of virtual workshops to discuss the anthology and the findings it contains with various target groups - e.g. with the academic community in Germany, but also internationally, and with international practitioners. What's more, intensive work is currently underway behind the scenes on a short film that brings together the key topics of the funding line. It will be completed at the end of the project period and presented at a small film screening event. I'm particularly looking forward to that.
Thank you very much for the insights, Mrs Tultschinetski, and good luck for the future!
(The interview was conducted in writing on 7 November 2020; questions by Katrin Schlotter)
