HAYAT – Germany – PROVA project

HAYAT-Germany: Hayat (Turkish and Arabic for “Life“) is a national-wide German counseling program for persons involved in radical Salafist groups or on the path of a violent Jihadist radicalization, including those travelling to Syria and other combat zones.

HAYAT was established in 2011 through an initiative of the „ZDK Gesellschaft Demokratische Kultur“. Since January 2012, HAYAT has been the partner of the German Federal Office for Immigration and Refugee Affairs (Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge BAMF), which established a national counseling hotline on radicalization.

HAYAT is addressed to people involved in radical Salafist groups or on the path of a violent Jihadist radicalization, including those travelling to Syria and other combat zones. Furthermore, HAYAT is available to the relatives of a radicalized person as well.

Hayat was established, tying in with the experiences of the first German de-radicalization and disengagement program for highly radicalized neo-Nazis: EXIT-Germany. This initiative developed methods and approaches to counsel and work with the relatives of radicalized persons to eventually prevent, decelerate and invert the radicalization process. Transferring this unique knowledge and experience into the realm of Islamic extremism, HAYAT is now available to parents, friends, teachers, and anyone else who has a relationship to a person potentially on the path of a radicalization.

Interventions