Behnam Said

The extraordinary journey of Behnam Said began not in fame, but in quiet determination, a bold vision, and a resolve to decode the mechanics of modern Islamist movements. Born in 1982 in Hamburg, Germany, he pursued studies in Islamic Studies, Political Science and Social and Economic History at the University of Hamburg. After completing his PhD in 2014 at the University of Jena on the topic of anāshīd (Islamist hymns) in the context of jihadist mobilization, he embarked on a career that would straddle both scholarship and intelligence analysis.

Rooted in this philosophy, he spent the period from 2008 to 2018 working at the Hamburg Office for Constitutional Protection, contributing analyses of Islamist extremism in Germany. Fueled by that early experience, he then moved in 2018 to the Hamburg Justice Authority, where he leads a specialist unit focusing on radicalization and preventive strategies.

His career was not always under the spotlight-periods of obscurity surrounded his doctoral research and early analyst work-but those years laid the groundwork for major publications that would turn abstract visions into concrete frameworks for counter-extremism. In 2014 he edited Salafismus - Auf der Suche nach dem wahren Islam, in 2015 published Islamischer Staat - IS-Miliz, al-Qaida und die deutschen Brigaden, the first German-language monograph on the then-emerging caliphate phenomenon. His 2016 monograph Hymnen des Jihads: Naschids im Kontext jihadistischer Mobilisierung further carved his niche as a scholar who draws connections between aesthetic culture, movement theory and violent mobilization.

He built bridges between academic insight and policy-oriented prevention: his 2018 policy brief Countering Islamist Radicalisation in Germany: A Guide to Germany's Growing Prevention Infrastructure, co-authored with Hazim Fouad, emerged from his years of practitioner experience. The intertwining of his intellectual curiosity and professional commitment has created a legacy marked by bold inquiry and practical application.

In retrospect, his career was a masterclass in analytical rigor, forever altering our understanding of Islamist movements and radicalization in Europe.