Teilprojekt InRa-Studie

Communities under Suspicion – Do Proactive Security Policy and Preven­tion of Extre­mism Have Non-Inten­ded Racist Side Effects? Coun­tering, as well as preven­ting, radicali­zation and extre­mism can under certain circum­stances lead to unin­tended racist effects and contri­bute to the crea­tion or conso­lidation of stereo­types in society. This is particu­larly the case when the mea­sures focus on mino­rities or when genera­lizing characte­ristics such as ethni­city, lan­guage, appea­rance, reli­gion, etc. are used as ‘markers’ for identi­fying extre­mist indivi­duals or for descri­bing the target groups of preven­tion and are rein­forced in the media.

The study exa­mined govern­mental and non-govern­mental institu­tions involved in the preven­tion of extre­mism and the impact of their work on Mus­lims or those percei­ved to be Muslim. On the one hand, the preven­tion mea­sures and prac­tices of the institu­tions were ana­lyzed on the basis of strate­gy papers and inter­views with (state and civil society) preven­tion actors. On the other hand, the expe­rien­ces and percep­tions of the affec­ted groups them­selves were exa­mined and made visi­ble by conduc­ting focus group inter­views.

The project was a sub-project of the InRa-study “Institutions & Racism” at the Research Institute for Social Cohesion (FGZ), which was funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs (BMI) based on a resolution of the German Parliament.

Read the final report of the InRa-study “Institutions & Racism” (German only)

Photo: Markus Meier via flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0