Islamism on the internet is a big issue from the point of view of the protection for children and young people. Especially content within the context of Salafism is designed to attract and address young people. It can easily be found through services like YouTube and Facebook. Even users who are not involved in an extremist environment are confronted with it.A great amount of this content has in common that it transports elements of a totalitarian ideology, negates freedom rights, denigrates democracy or promotes the caliphate as an anti-democratic counter model. It denies the values and ways of living of modern, pluralist societies. Instead, a theocratic regime should be established where the religious law of Sharia dominates all areas of life.The underlying ideology of inequality separates humans in believers and nonbelievers and legitimizes hatred against those people who do not fit the worldview, e.g. liberal Muslims, Jews or homosexuals.Some Islamist groups even advocate violence for achieving their goals. This brochure summarizes findings by jugendschutz.net from research into Islamism on the internet and describes the phenomenon from the youth protection point of view. It focuses in particular on the Islamist strategies for attracting young users to their propaganda. It also shows possible counter-measures.

Published on 28-12-15