Extreme Dialogue

Extreme Dialogue included the development of a multilingual interview platform that aims to support the prevention of group hatred and contempt for humanity with the help of didactic short films about those affected and formerly involved. Careful pedagogical embedding in exercises and materials helps and accompanies teachers in practical application. By preparing the video material of seven to 20 minutes in length for a teaching time of at least three school lessons, the pedagogical priority of the work is maintained offline. This is because in prevention and education, the focus must be on the direct personal relationship between classmates or young people and teachers - counter-narratives on the internet are not effective without pedagogical mediation.

Among other things, two short films were prepared for this purpose:

The film about Jimmy shows a resistance and human rights activist from Syria who faced prison and torture. Jimmy fled to Europe in 2014. His comrades-in-arms from back then are now dead or have also fled. Jimmy also talks about his life as a refugee in Germany, his charitable work - and how he deals with the deep pain he feels.

The film about Daniel shows a former neo-Nazi and white supremacist from Canada from the international Hammer Skin spectrum. He was one of the most violent of his 'comrades' and committed countless acts of brutal violence. Today he talks about the domestic circumstances of his childhood, including how he recruited new blood and how 9/11 inspired him to even talk to Islamists about fighting 'against the system'. For several years, he has been involved full-time in the prevention of right-wing extremism and group-based misanthropy.

Extremedialogue.org is the result of an EU-ISEC project (2014-16) coordinated by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue and co-designed by the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. The German partner of this EU project is Cultures Interactive (CI), Berlin. For the publication of extremedialogue.org, Cultures Interactive was supported by its cooperation partner ContRa e.V. in Vechta and the JFF - Institut für Medienpädagogik in Forschung und Praxis in Munich.