Details:
The Pierre Werner Institute (IPW) announced a session with political scientist Asiem El Difraoui, explaining "why we have to deal with jihadism?" on 13 June 2022 at 19:00 in Neumünster Abbey (neimënster).
Mr Difraoui is considered one of the leading experts in Europe on the subject, advises German and French government bodies and comments on ARD, BBC and CNN. In an interview with the Luxembourg journalist Petz Bartz (“Vu Meespelt an den Jihad”), the questions are: What makes this deadly ideology attractive, especially for young people in Europe? What part does the West and the media have in their success?
In his book “The Hydra of Jihadism” (Suhrkamp), Mr Difraoui describes in a knowledgeable and clear manner how jihadism came about, how its thought patterns and public relation (PR) strategies have changed and from which the Hydra derives its power. For him, jihadism remains one of the greatest dangers of the present: it has long since become a global movement to which dozens of organisations belong – and it cannot be defeated with violence alone.
Mr Difraoui has been following this development as a filmmaker, journalist and scientist for three decades. He met Osama bin Laden's comrades-in-arms in Khartoum and PR strategists who produced propaganda videos in Berlin-Charlottenburg. In war zones like Bosnia, Iraq or Afghanistan, he himself witnessed the terror against the population. And again and again terror came to him, as in the form of the attacks in Paris in 1995 and 2015, which happened in his immediate vicinity.
Mr Difraoui, born in 1965, has always been a traveler and mediator between cultures. As the son of an Egyptian father and a German mother, he grew up near Frankfurt, studied in London and Cairo, and received his doctorate in Paris with Gilles Kepel. He currently lives in Paris.
Mr Bartz traveled to Syria with his camera in 2019 to document a report on the Luxembourg jihadist Steve Duarte. For this contribution, he was voted into the final round of the Amnesty Mediepräis in the same year.
Admission to the event is free, however registration is requested.
Venue: Neumünster Abbey
Organiser: Pierre Werner Institute
Price: n/a
Reservations: see above
