Austria to close 7 mosques, expel imams in crackdown

[Varun]

BERLIN — Austria’s government said Friday that it is closing seven mosques and plans to expel imams in a crackdown on “political Islam” and foreign financing of religious groups.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the government is shutting a hardline Turkish nationalist mosque in Vienna and dissolving a group called the Arab Religious Community that runs six mosques.

The actions by the government are based on a 2015 law that, among other things, prevents religious communities from getting funding from abroad. Interior Minister Herbert Kickl said the residence permits of around 40 imams employed by ATIB, a group that oversees Turkish mosques in Austria, are being reviewed because of concerns about such financing.

Kickl said that, in two cases, permits have already been revoked. Five more imams were denied first-time permits.

The conservative Kurz became chancellor in December in a coalition with the anti-migration Freedom Party.

In campaigning for last year’s election, both coalition parties called for tougher immigration controls, quick deportations of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied and a crackdown on radical Islam. The government recently announced plans to ban girls in elementary schools and kindergartens from wearing headscarves, adding to existing restrictions on veils.

“Parallel societies, political Islam and tendencies toward radicalization have no place in our country,” Kurz told reporters in Vienna. He added that the government’s powers to intervene “were not sufficiently used” in the past.

Friday’s measures are “a first significant and necessary step in the right direction,” said Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, the Freedom Party’s leader. “If these measures aren’t enough, we will if necessary evaluate the legal situation here or there.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a53387b4abf4

To go with their veil ban from last year -> http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...stria-face-veil-ban-criminalises-Muslim-women

 

[akki]

Expect some british pakistanis to come and say , well their country their rules...

 

[Asim_khan]

Sounds like an anti turkish/Erdogan drive rather than anything against radical islam IMHO, if so, they'd have targeted the Saudi mosques.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

To go with their veil ban from last year -> http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...stria-face-veil-ban-criminalises-Muslim-women

Also initiated by you


We don't actually hear much about Austria over here, most of the news has been that it has become very anti-immigrant for a while now, and I might have read something a good while back that it had a strong neo Nazi movement which had filtered into mainstream politics over there.

Does anybody have any first hand experience of how that country runs and life over there in general?

 

[CricketCartoons]

Also initiated by you

Our dear friend Varun is one of the first to show concerns for Muslims and keeps us updated about news we need to hear.

 

[Varun]

Also initiated by you

I post a lot of threads on a number of topics - your reactions say more about you than me.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I post a lot of threads on a number of topics - your reactions say more about you than me.

You do indeed, Arabs, Israelis, Bangladesh, to name a few.

Anyway, do you have any insight into life in Austria? Now you have brought the topic up I do think it would make a good discussion.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

No one should accept foreign interference when it comes to schools, places of worship etc. Even Turkey agrees with this hence lobbying for a shutdown of all Hizmet" movement schools and mosques worldwide.

 

[DeadBall]

Sounds like an anti turkish/Erdogan drive rather than anything against radical islam IMHO, if so, they'd have targeted the Saudi mosques.

Yes, I too got a pamphlet yesterday to stop construction of a Turkish mosque. It mentions that it promotes Erdogans political policies and is funded by the AKP party. Not to mention religious radicalization etc

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Reading up a bit on this, seems Austria has some long running issues with Turkey, they have been vehemently opposed to Turkish membership of EU, although this seems to have lost it's relevance now even Britain is no longer going to be part of it.

 

[CricketCartoons]

The only thing I know about Austria is that its capital is Vienna, which I learnt as a kid. Somehow it was not easy to forget. What language do they speak, Austrian?

 

[Gabbar Singh]

The only thing I know about Austria is that its capital is Vienna, which I learnt as a kid. Somehow it was not easy to forget. What language do they speak, Austrian?

German.

 

[enkidu_]

The only thing I know about Austria is that its capital is Vienna, which I learnt as a kid. Somehow it was not easy to forget. What language do they speak, Austrian?

You might also like to know that there was an Austrian failed artist who became a pan Germanist racialist in Munich, and who eventually ended up triggering WWII.

 

[PakLFC]

If the Mosque is producing radicals and is deemed as being a threat then there is every reason to have it closed. Muslim's have the right to fight to have it cleared if they sense any wrong doing. Ultimately, the law of the land is always superior.