It is 26 February 2016 when 15-year-old Safia pulls out a knife at Hanover Central Station and stabs a police officer in the neck. He survives, but is badly injured. Two months previously, the secondary school student had flown to Istanbul to join the "Islamic State". Before she was able to cross the border to Syria, her mother brought her back to Hanover. There are videos online of Safia the primary school child sitting next to the Salafist preacher Pierre Vogel, reciting Koran suras. Wearing a hijab with not a single hair visible – as an eight-year-old. Her mother brought her up that way.

On 16 April, a bomb explodes in front of a Sikh temple in Essen. During a wedding celebration. A priest and two guests are injured. The two perpetrators are 16 years old. One of them is already being watched by the state security agency, he disseminates Islamist propaganda on Facebook, calls himself "Kuffar Killer" – "Murderer of Infidels". He has a police record for bodily harm and burglary. His accomplice had taken part in Koran distribution activities organised by Islamists.

These are just the most recent examples of German youngsters who have gone off the rails and ended up in a violent Islamist milieu. The German intelligence service estimates that more than 8,600 Muslims adhere to the Salafist movement. A tiny minority, in view of the four million Muslims in the nation as a whole. But a figure that's constantly on the rise. Five years ago, there were fewer than 4,000 known members of this grouping. Some 800 of them left Germany and went as jihadists to Syria, 130 were killed, 20 of those in suicide attacks, 260 have returned.

Salafists canvass in front of schools, in youth clubs, online. A particularly eager campaigner in this regard is the convert Pierre Vogel, who tours towns and cities as an open-air preacher and explains his brand of Islam in hundreds of YouTube videos.

In the clutches of the Salafists

Nevertheless the question remains, why so many young people end up in the clutches of the Salafists. And: how can they be prevented from doing this?

There are many answers to the first question. "Potential answers," says Michael Kiefer. He is a scholar of Islam at the University of Osnabruck and is currently trying to find out, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Youth, why youngsters are being radicalised. Kiefer and a colleague are conducting interviews with Islamists, their acquaintances, friends, siblings, parents.

For Michael Kiefer, Salafist groups are a collection point for the insecure, for those without opportunities, for those who feel marginalised, who don't get along at school or with their families, who are caught up in a crisis of identity. The Salafists not only lure them in with religious material, but also with the sense of being important, or part of something big – and better than the others.

On the other hand, Kiefer says, those who are radicalised despite having a good education are often motivated by a sense of righteousness, convinced that Muslims are the victims of international policy and that one must fight for their interests. It is possible that Safia falls into this category.

Salafists are fundamental Muslims aiming to establish a theocracy. For them, only Sharia law is applicable, not the constitution. All the questions of human coexistence are dealt with by the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. Those who follow this code will be rewarded with paradise, while hell awaits the others.

This is not to say that all Salafists are terrorists carrying out attacks in the name of Islam or joining the Jihad in Syria. There are Salafists who simply want to lead a godly life, there are those who strive for an Islamic state, but who reject violence. But: all those who have drifted into the radical Islamist milieu had previous contact with Salafist groups.

Many of those who join the Salafists lack basic religious awareness. Salafism lures them in with simple rules, dividing up the world into good and evil. There are however still huge gaps in our knowledge of how the milieu is composed, says Kiefer. Germany had for a long time neglected to carry out any relevant research or prevention work, he adds. Most of the funds were channelled into the security agencies. That has now changed. In 2015, the Federal Ministry for Youth spent 5.8 million Euros on preventive measures against violent Islamism. That figure is set to increase to 7.5 million Euros this year.

Supporters of the Salafist preacher Pierre Vogel in downtown Frankfurt am Main (photo: Boris Roessler/dpa) — Clenched fists and selfies for the Ummah: Salafists are fundamental Muslims aiming to establish a theocracy. For them, only Sharia law is applicable, not the constitution. All the questions of human coexistence are dealt with by the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Those who follow this code will be rewarded with paradise, while hell awaits the others

Prevention networks against Islamism

Much has been done, but there is still a lack of any nationwide programmes. Several states took too long to start building up preventive networks. Much of it is still uncoordinated; there is no overall strategy or mutual exchange. There are numerous individual projects, most in urban areas, very few in rural areas – although youngsters are being radicalised there too. What is working and what is not? This is still to be clarified. Therefore, the second question – how to protect youngsters from Islamism? – still remains an open one.

Michael Kiefer can at least set the direction. "Prevention," he says, "must begin early and everyone has to work together: teachers, parents, social workers, imams, sports coaches. They all have to talk to each other, as soon as they notice something about a young person. This response must become institutionalised."

One who does start early is Nadim Gleitsmann. He works at Ufuq (Arabic for 'Horizon'), a Berlin association that explains Salafism to teachers and youth workers nationwide and discusses Islam and democracy with young people in workshops. Gleitsmann works in Hamburg, attending both vocational colleges and secondary schools, talking to both eighth-graders and those about to graduate from school. He comes when the teachers no longer know how to help.

When students insult girls who don't wear headscarves, calling them infidels, when they praise Osama bin Laden as a hero, or describe the Charlie Hebdo attackers as "brothers of honour". What is merely provocation and what is conviction? Gleitsmann talks to the students about Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia. He shows short films in which theologians explain how a term like "jihad" should really be understood. The students who spread radical views must be enticed away from their ringleader role, says Gleitsmann, who is himself a Muslim and former student of Islamic studies. The aim is to immunise the youngsters against the Salafist ideology. To do this, it is not imperative to talk about religion, but to focus on the question: how do we want to live?

The Federal Agency for Civic Education is also active in Islamism prevention work. It has for several months focused on YouTube videos. Its information campaign is called "Begriffswelten Islam" (The Terminology of Islam). In it, scholars of Islam explain the meaning of a Caliphate, for example. In this way, youngsters are being provided with something to counter the Salafist interpretation of Islam. To ensure the material finds its way to the young, the videos are presented by YouTube stars like LeFloid. The number of clicks – 130,000 – is promising.

The agency also supports the work of Patrick Frankenberger. The political scientist is project leader for Islamism on the Internet at Jugendschutz.net. It is his job to cleanse the Internet of Islamist propaganda, including the horrific videos posted by "Islamic State". He sees videos on an almost daily basis that show people being tortured, beheaded, burned and shot at point blank range. Sometimes, as if the horror were not enough, by 12-year-old boys.

The intention is to foment hatred

The IS videos are doing the rounds on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and in WhatsApp groups. And this means they are finding their way into the playgrounds of German schools. Elaborately staged, with a dramatic composition intended to horrify, the edits rhythmically timed with the music. As though made by professionals, says Frankenberger. The "justification" for the executions is supplied along with the videos; these were infidels, Jewish spies or the soldiers of Assad. The videos are horrifying to many of the youngsters, says Frankenberger. "But they can act as a pull to the potentially violent ones."

Islamic scholar Michael Kiefer (photo: dpa/picture-alliance) — Islam scholar Michael Kiefer: ""Prevention must begin early and everyone has to work together: teachers, parents, social workers, imams, sports coaches. They all have to talk to each other, as soon as they notice something about a young person. This response must become institutionalised"

The Islamists' propaganda is not limited to gruesome videos. Photos are taken out of context: for example, images showing earthquake victims from Tibet, with the accompanying caption - "Here we see how Muslims in Burma are being slaughtered." The intention is to foment hatred. In many videos, the militant jihad is presented as a great adventure, the fighters from Germany cast as heroes, the "Islamic State" portrayed as nothing less than a paradise nation.

The Islamists' Internet propaganda is primarily aimed at young people. They publish videos of digitally manipulated computer games, for example Call of Duty is Call of Jihad, the player shown fights as a jihadist and carries out attacks. Or SpongeBob calls for the destruction of Israel.

Frankenberger and his colleagues found Islamist propaganda in over a thousand cases. They then approach the platform operators to get the films deleted. Anything that contravenes youth media protection laws must be deleted and this includes incitement, the depiction of violence and the glorification of war.

Thomas Mucke, an educator and political scientist, works with those who have slipped through the still-wide meshing of the prevention net. With Syria returnees. Mucke is one of the directors of the Berlin Violence Prevention Network (VPN). As well as running advice centres in several states, VPN also focuses on "de-radicalisation within the penal system", in prisons in Berlin, Hessen and Lower Saxony among others.

"Those who return are unsure," says Mucke. They asked questions: "In Syria Muslims kill Muslims. Was that Islamic, what I experienced there?" One returnee from Syria uttered the sentence "I'd rather be in prison in Germany than free in Syria."

The doubts of the returnees provide Mucke with starting points for his work. "We help them to reactivate their minds," he says. "In Islamist circles only one thing counts: follow, don't ask. They've surrendered their sense of reason."

De-radicalisation in prison as preventive work

He meets up with them once a week, the easier cases in a group, the tougher cases in one-to-one sessions. Muslim colleagues do the preparatory work in advance. They attempt to establish trust. They talk about religion, demonstrate that the Islamists' point of view is not the only one and not the right one. "You have to make it clear to them that Islam has its place in society," says Mucke, "but Islamism does not." Mucke and his colleagues also work with the youngsters after they've been released, helping them to find an apprenticeship. De-radicalisation in prison is also preventive work. The danger of relapse is always there, as prisons have for a long while been the favoured recruiting ground of radical Salafists.

Prevention can give no guarantees. And it requires time. This was most evident recently in North Rhine-Westphalia: one of the two bombers from Essen had been involved in a voluntary opt-out programme for more than a year. A call to the Interior Ministry yields the information that the state government nevertheless plans to continue developing the programme. After all, what's the alternative?

The example of the most prominent German Salafist preacher Pierre Vogel shows just how complex it is to gauge the dynamic within the milieu. Even though Vogel routinely distances himself from terrorism in his public appearances – for many young people he is a route into Islamism. In view of this, it seems bizarre that he is himself now considered a target by Islamists: in the latest edition of the English-language IS propaganda magazine he described as an apostate. The title of the article: ″Kill the imam of the infidels of the West″. Vogel had described the attacks in Paris and Brussels as a sin. As he routinely does.

Arnfried Schenk

Translated from the German by Nina Coon

Jihad in the schoolyard

سيادة القانون وأعداؤه المتهورون

أين انطلاقة الكتاب العربي في مضامير الفضاءات الرقمية؟

"لقد أفلتنا من جحيم" غزة

الحرب وتحول الدور الاجتماعي لليمنيات

كتاب "حماس - سيطرة على غزة وحرب ضد إسرائيل"

المدرسة لم تعد سوى ذكرى بعيدة في قطاع غزة