Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) ,

The prevention of Islamism in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is coordinated, financed and implemented with services at all three levels of prevention by the Department for the Protection of the Constitution in the Ministry of the Interior. In addition to lectures, publications, exhibition stands and events on the topic, the state-wide prevention program "Wegweiser" and Aussteigerprogramm Islamismus (API) (exit programme from Islamism)are core elements of the prevention work.

Wegweiser is a prevention program against violent Salafism. It intends to prevent possible radicalisation processes of adolescents and young people from the outset. An essential component of the programme is specific, local advice. It is open to young people and their relatives and others who recognise problems and perceive changes in young people. For authorities, schools or other institutions, Wegweiser also offers individual counselling, assistance and sensitisation events on the subject of extremist Salafism. The programme has been run by local authorities on site since 2014. With a total of 25 advice centres, the programme now spans the entire state.

Wegweiser Online will be added to the programme next year and, in addition to offline advice, will also offer low-threshold services on the Internet where the young target group is located. Appropriate social media formats will also be created to intensify the dialogue with the young target group.

In the field of intervention and extremism prevention, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia offers support through exit programmes in all areas of extremism. In addition to the exit programmes "API" in the field of Islamism and Spurwechsel in the field of right-wing extremism, which have been in existence for years, the third programme "Left " began its work in summer 2018. "Left" is aimed at members of the German and foreign left-wing extremist scene.

The API, which was founded in 2014, is aimed at the entire Islamist scene, in part also at persons from the violent, terrorist sector and returnees from war zones. The exit programmes offer members of the extremist scene professional help in getting out, reintegrating into society and protecting people who are in danger of being attacked by the extremist environment.. Since exit processes are very intensive and often protracted, the NRW exit programmes accompany their clients for several years. Essential elements of exit work are the systematic processing of ideological patterns of thought and the social stabilisation of the people willing to leave the scene. Precondition for participation in the programmes is the willingness to break away from the extremist scene. The team members contribute their special expertise in the respective extremist scene and have previous professional experience and knowledge in the fields of police, constitutional protection, justice, Islamic, legal and political science, psychology, education and social work. This creates the basis for tailor-made methods of deradicalisation and social stabilisation.

The "Prisma" project, which has been in existence for many years and which has also been organisationally linked to the NRW Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2017, enables school classes and multipliers, for example from the police, judiciary and educational practice, to talk to people leaving different extremist scenes. Feedback from participants confirms that this is a particularly direct way of providing insights into the lives and motives that have led to people turning to extremism. They point particularly clearly to the dangers emanating from these scenes and promote prevention. This encounter with people who have left the scene, especially when it takes place in school classes, must be embedded in a didactic context so that it can then be reflected on and can be deepened.

The Ministry of the Interior (IM), together with the Ministry of Children, Family, Refugees and Integration, is also in charge of the permanent Inter-Ministerial Working Group "Salafism Prevention as a Task for Society as a Whole" to combat violent anti-constitutional Salafism. Together with IMAG, a concept for action for the holistic prevention of Salafism has been developed with the participation of academics and experts from civil society and practice, which is accompanied by a continuous network that develops and implements sustainable programmes and projects across all departments. To date, 27 concrete individual measures from seven thematic priorities have already been implemented, covering the areas of social spaces, schools, prisons, involvement of Muslims, media, propaganda, promotion of democracy, and women and girls. Among them are also several IM projects. Extremist ideologies are subject to constant change. Accordingly, IMAG is being further developed and identifies new fields of activity, target groups and programmes to strengthen prevention in combination with democracy promotion. New players are also involved. Thematic priorities in 2020 include the expansion and networking of prevention offers and awareness-raising measures, online prevention, problems caused by returnees from Syria, and radicalisation and endangerment of refugees.

Since returnees from jihadist combat zones pose a high risk to Germany's internal security, the Ministry of the Interior has developed a comprehensive, coordinated and standardised procedure for dealing with returnees in close cooperation with the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since mid-October 2019, the Returnee Coordinator (RKK) has been acting as an interface between the security authorities and other stakeholders at federal, state and local level as well as civil society players. In doing so, the RKK draws on existing networks and can integrate proven prevention and de-radicalisation programmes at an early stage in return situations.

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Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)
Friedrichstraße 62-80
40217 Duesseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia

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Telephone: +49 211 871 - 01
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homepage: Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)