"The Iranian regime wants to send two messages. Domestically: 'We are strong.' And internationally: 'We can also defend ourselves,'" explains Middle East expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project, in an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau by Ippen.Media. In this tense situation, however, it's playing with fire: "It already has the potential to be suicidal. Or to put it another way: One has to ask whether they've lost their minds," says Schindler. "Flying a drone that close is quite clearly a provocation."

An Internal Affairs spokesperson said many of the NGO referrals are from larger and often international NGO agencies which specialise in identifying terrorist and violent extremist content. They say an increase in these referrals highlights their partnerships with international not-for-profit organisations, such as the Counter Extremism Project.

What does Iran hope to achieve with this provocation? What does this mean for the nuclear talks? Can a US attack on Iran currently be ruled out? Jessica Zahedi discusses this with Middle East expert [CEP Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler on ZDFheute live.

"This is absolutely not how a radicalized person should be treated," says Sofia Koller, an expert on terrorism. She works at the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) research institute in Germany. According to Koller, a radicalized person should be offered a clear framework. A proper legal process and a roadmap for how to support the person to change their life, he says.

Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed [at 6:46] on the sabotage against German navy ships in Hamburg. 

On Jan. 27, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Maestro Lotoro led a concert of this music in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Lotoro’s collection includes not only music from the Nazi camps and ghettoes, but also the camps of the USSR and Hirohito’s Japan, and other sites of mass internment.

[CEP Senior Director] Iran expert Hans-Jakob Schindler sees the mullah regime in a “lose-lose situation.” Making major concessions to the US would be risky and could provoke a coup by the Revolutionary Guards.

Höss’ former home sits cheek by jowl with Auschwitz, literally just metres away. It has been bought by a US organisation called the Counter Extremism Project and transformed into the Auschwitz Research Centre on Hate, Extremism and Radicalization (ARCHER) at House 88. A former symbol of hate is now a place where people can learn how to fight extremism and anti-Semitism. “We reclaimed this house after 80 years to do something positive,” says Purski, a political scientist and educator who researches extremist ideologies for the Counter Extremism Project.

A report from the Counter Extremism Project describes a pro-ISIS chat on RocketChat in which a user allegedly interrogated an "uncensored AI" for technical information on explosives and destructive capabilities. The case reopens the debate on decentralized platforms, propaganda, and radicalization.

"It is likely that, similar to Ali Khamenei's case in 1989, the decision will fall on a weak candidate. In 1989, Khamenei was considered harmless by all religious schools in Qom because he lacked his own religious power base," Hans-Jakob Schindler, head of the Berlin-based think tank Counter Extremism Project, told our editorial team. "Now it will be crucial to find a candidate who does not pose an obvious threat to the enormous power of the various branches of the Revolutionary Guard, but who maintains good relations with the Guard's overall organization." However, the negotiations within the Assembly of Experts could also result in a leadership body of religious clerics instead of a new Supreme Leader.