Julian Junk has been appointed to the Task Force on the Prevention of Islamism initiated by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI). The task force, which is planned for two years, is composed of scientists from fields such as extremism research, religious education and Islamic studies, as well as practitioners from various security authorities and prevention agencies. It is to advise the federal government on current and long-term challenges in the field of Islamism in the form of semi-annual briefings. A key part is to operationalize existing knowledge from science and practice for the sake of concrete recommendations for action. “More and more often, we see young perpetrators who have been radicalized online and in chats. We have to recognize and stop these radicalization processes earlier,” said Federal Minister Faeser at the inaugural meeting on October 1, 2024. The task force is to strengthen and expand existing projects and strategies for deradicalization, improve the advice center of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and respond to new online phenomena of Islamist radicalization and recruitment. As a first priority, it is focusing on “combating online radicalization of young people in the context of the current security situation”. This is due to an increase in Islamist and Salafist propaganda, radicalization and recruitment via messenger services such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Telegram and especially TikTok. Therefore, the task force is initially addressing the influence of digital and social media on the radicalization of young people and will develop new approaches for more effective prevention online. Julian Junk welcomes the network-oriented approach of the new task force: “Prevention is networking, as is research into the prevention of Islamism and advice in this area. The composition of the task force reflects this and will incorporate many more areas of expertise and disciplines. To this end, we will also make use of the numerous research and transfer networks in which the PRIF Research Group Radicalization is involved”.
Julian Junk is head of the Research Group Radicalization at PRIF. He holds the research professorship in Extremism Research and Extremism Resilience at the Hessian University of Applied Sciences for Public Management and Security, where he heads the Extremism Resilience Research Centre. He heads numerous Germany- and Europe-wide research collaborations on topics of radicalization and de-radicalization, extremism prevention and its evaluation, as well as radicalization processes on online platforms.