Austria’s new far-right government led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on the 8th a decision to dissolve the Arab Religious Community, thereby shutting down seven mosques in Austria, four of which are located in Vienna, as part of a major crackdown on the increase of ‘political Islam’ in the country. 60 imams in Austria who are funded by Turkey also risk a permanent deportation from the country based on the neglect of Austrian laws which prohibit any foreign financing of all religious communities in Austria.
At the joint press conference where this news was revealed, Chancellor Kurz announced that his government prided in Austria’s rich cultural diversity, but there would never be a place for any parallel societies in the country. According to him, shutting down of merely 7 mosques was just the beginning of the complete erasure of the ‘Islamification’ propaganda from the country of Austria. This decision of the Chancellor was met with outcries of the fury of the Islamic population both in Austria and in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara.
However, Ibrahim Kalin, the presidential spokesman for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey, immediately denounced Chancellor Kurz’s announcements as mere reflections of the massive racist, discriminatory, anti-Islam populist wave which was sweeping over Austria. Austria’s present government is led by the Freedom party which is infamous for its far-right and eurosceptic policies. The leader of the said party, Heinz-Christian Strache, who is also the vice-chancellor of Austria had already publicly announced Islamification of the country is the most important danger threatening Austria’s security at the moment. A final statement on Friday from the vice-chancellor confirmed that Austria had begun to tackle that threat seriously, but was still showing decisiveness.