Stakeholders of (De-) Radicalisation in Austria

D3.1 Country Report April 2021

Abstract

This report gives an overview of the stakeholders of radicalisation and de-radicalisation in Austria. Overall and compared to other countries, violent extremism is quite low and terrorist attacks have been rare exceptions in Austria. Nonetheless, certain tendencies towards radicalisation and alienation have become increasingly observable in recent years. The terror attack in Vienna in November 2020 caused four fatalities and brought the topic of Islamic extremism to the fore. At the same time, right-wing extremist groups have taken to the streets and xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic sentiments and assaults are growing. While right-wing extremism is publically downplayed, political actors have used populist rhetoric to link immigrants and people of Muslim faith to political Islamism and terror.

This report introduces the Austrian context as well as national discourses and events in connection to the radicalisation and extremism of the past 20 years. It shows how the public perceptions of and the data on radicalisation only partially match. To give an overview on channels of radicalisation, we provide insights into two networks which are exemplary for the Austrian case, namely the Identitarian Movement and the Terror Militia Islamic State. Finally, we provide an overview of de-radicalisation programmes, which have been developed comparatively late and which, analogically to the other findings, emphasise Islamic extremism despite high numbers of right-wing extremist activities. National measures are a heterogeneous mix of private bottom-up and official government initiatives.