Our meeting with the domestic policy spokesman of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Konstantin Kuhle, was entirely overshadowed by the Islamist attack in Vienna the previous evening. We therefore took the opportunity to hand over to Mr Kuhle our position papers on the topics of Islamism and right-wing extremism.
On Islamism in particular, we agreed that many people find it difficult to draw the line: how far do tolerance and acceptance of political-religious attitudes extend, and where does an unacceptable hostility to the Basic Law begin? We also spoke about the fact that state presence is necessary in the prevention and repression of extremism. On the one hand in order to create educational and deradicalisation programmes, on the other hand in order to apply repression where necessary. Finding the right balance between these two elements is a great challenge.
We agreed on how important it is to take the symbolic power of images into account. Which political actors does one upgrade through visibility, and which rather not? That applies to dealing with Islamists just as much as to other extremists. The conversation was so pleasant that unfortunately we forgot at the end to take a joint photograph. Instead of two faces with masks, therefore only one of Mr Kuhle. Many thanks.
