“The Alarming Trend of Extremism Among Austrian Youth: Insights from the Open Youth Work Network”

A Whatsapp group of schoolgirls with the name “Wir sind Hitlerinnen” or a youngster who wants to talk his classmate out of going to the school ball because it is “haram” (i.e. forbidden): These are two exemplary cases that were recently sent to Verena Fabris from the extremism counseling center of the nationwide Open Youth Work Network (bOJA). And they are not uncommon: as a contact point, bOJA receives between 800 and 1,000 reports and questions on the subject of extremism and radicalization every year – and the trend is rising.