CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller writes: Neither France nor Germany remains spared from the threat of Islamist terrorism: In France, the threat level remains high. In February 2026 alone, two 16-year-old boys were charged with planning a terrorist attack, and a released extremist offender attacked a gendarme with a knife at the Place de l’Étoile in Paris. Germany, too, remains “unabatedly in the crosshairs of ISIS,” as the knife attack in Solingen in August 2024 demonstrated. In the fight against Islamist extremism and terrorism, however, rapid and effective responses to such security risks are in a constant tension with the rule of law and long-term violence prevention. Germany and France—close friends, neighbors, drivers of European integration, and competitors—weigh these factors differently on this issue. Therefore, it is worth briefly comparing the three most important differences in counterterrorism.

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed on Islamist extremism in Germany and the death of Khamenei.

In Germany, the debate is increasingly framed through the lens of hybrid tactics. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project, said: “It’s clear that the defense strategy of the Islamic regime in Iran really is hybrid warfare. ” He added that the idea Tehran could try to “increase the economic and political costs of military confrontation globally by using terror attacks as they had a history in the past of doing” is “definitely something that is very clear. ”

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed about the wave of terror attacks in Germany and young perpetrators.

CEP Strategic Advisor Liam Duffy writes: While the official counter-terror lexicon of most states labels such outbursts as ‘Islamist terrorism’, what authorities usually mean by that is the jihadist violence of the likes of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). Among the steady trickle of stabbings or vehicle-ramming attacks, there are indeed those either claimed by IS – such as the 2024 Solingen mass stabbings – or those attributed to IS by the perpetrator, such as the vehicle ramming in New Orleans which ushered in the New Year. There are also those where the mental health of the attacker does indeed seem the most pertinent factor.

The threat of violence has never been far away from crowded jails but the problem is now endemic. The rehabilitation of offenders cannot happen within an unstable system. As the former prison governor Ian Acheson says: “Broken staff cannot help fix broken people.” A key factor in the crisis of authority in UK jails has been the rise of Islamist gangs after the jailing of radicals for terrorist attacks and plots. Almost 16,000 inmates in England and Wales now ­identify themselves as Muslim after a 190 per cent rise in their numbers in 22 years due to sentencing and religious conversions behind bars. Almost a decade ago, Mr Acheson warned the Commons justice committee that “all the ingredients for radicalisation” in jails were present. Islamist gang culture, sometimes expressed in loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood, mixes with ordinary criminality. Conversion to Islam behind bars is driven partly by the protection offered by gang membership in increasingly anarchic settings.

Imam Abdullah S. has not committed any crimes to date. In the YouTube video, he also denies ever having advocated violence. However, Hans-Jakob Schindler of the research organization "Counter Extremism Project" expresses understanding for the Free State's harsh approach: The free democratic basic order could also be endangered "by targeted actions without direct calls for violence against the free democratic basic order."