Austria to shut 7 mosques and could expel dozens of imams

Al Jazeera ^ | 06/09/2018

[SeekAndFind]

Austria is closing seven mosques and could expel dozens of imams from the country, the government has announced.

At a press conference on Friday, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the government is shutting down a Turkish mosque and dissolving a group called the Arab Religious Community, which runs six mosques.

The Austrian government's actions stem from a 2015 law, which bans foreign funding of religious groups and required Muslim societies to have "a positive fundamental view towards [Austria's] state and society".

"Parallel societies, political Islam and tendencies toward radicalisation have no place in our country," Kurz said.

Austria is home to an estimated 600,000 Muslims, mostly of Turkish origin.

Culture Minister Gernot Blumel said the Turkish mosque was shut down because of suspected right-wing "extremism" and because the Austrian Islamic Faith Community had not licensed it.

The Arab mosques were accused of preaching Salafi positions and would, therefore, be shuttered, Blumel said. Salafism is a school of theology based on a strict and literal interpretation of Islam.

[JustaTech]

Sounds like a monkey wrench just got thrown into Erdoğan's scheme to dominate Austria. Let's hope this humiliation leads to his downfall.

We're within five years of the beginning of troubles, I'm convinced. Three twos and a zero, not in that order.