Tag: Islam

Dutch soldier loses job due to relationship with Turk

A Dutch woman who was a corporal in the Dutch army named Yvette is about to lose her job due to her relationship with a Turk, Mehmet.

“I could not believe I got into trouble because I was in love,” Yvette said.

She met Mehmet, who worked as a bartender in the western tourist town of Bodrum, in early 2012 and first thought that it was a summer romance, but later it turned into a relationship when Mehmet visited the Netherlands and both decided to continue the relationship there.

In December 2013, Yvette received a letter from the Dutch Defense Ministry saying that her job was at stake due to her relationship with a foreigner.

Since the Dutch Military Intelligence Service has no working relation with the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT), the Netherlands was not able to look into Mehmet’s background.

According to Dutch laws, those who serve in the military are only allowed to have relationships with citizens from countries that share intelligence and data with the Netherlands. Reportedly, only because there is no intelligence sharing between the Netherlands and Turkey, Mehmet was found risky. With this safety policy enacted in 2013, the Dutch government aimed to end spying activities.

It is reported that the woman is supported by her co-workers in the military and there are nearly 20 soldiers in the Dutch military who face the risk of losing their jobs due to having relationships with people from other countries that do not share intelligence with the Netherlands. What makes Yvette and Mehmet’s relationship so eye-catching for the international media is that Mehmet is from a NATO ally country, not from other countries that are seen as “critical.”

Even the supreme chief of the Netherlands Defense Staff reportedly found the situation “incomprehensible” and showed support for Yvette so she could continue to work during the proceedings. Yvette’s lawyer Michale Ruperti said: “We exchange information with Turkey on criminals and extremists. But in this case, the Netherlands said, ‘We do not trust the intelligence of a partner.’ ”

Yvette, who has been serving in the military for 13 years and has been sent to Afghanistan twice, expressed her sadness for being pushed to make a choice between two things that she loves, her partner and her job.

Source: Daily Sabah

Hitler photo delivers blow to Pegida

In Pegida’s first ever press conference in Dresden on Monday, Lutz Bachmann insisted that the group was not racist, and distanced themselves from footage during a lively television debate showing Pegida demonstrators delivering racist remarks.

Bachmann has been most keen to stress his Muslim credentials, showing photographs on his Facebook site of his Turkish best man.

Meanwhile a Catholic priest who took part in a demonstration organised by the Pegida-offshoot group Dügida in the western city of Duisburg in Germany on Monday has been banned from preaching by his religious elders, after he compared the movement to the Crusades.

The head of the German anti-Islamisation has stepped down after a picture of him jokingly posing as Adolf Hitler was unearthed. Bachmann, 41, is a butcher’s son from Dresden.

Bachmann’s Facebook page, was accompanied by the line: “He’s Back,” after Timur Vermes’ best-selling 2012 satirical novel of the same name about Hitler.

The Dresden Morgenpost somehow got hold of a private Facebook conversation between Bachmann and one of his Facebook contacts, in which he described immigrants as “cattle”, “scumbags” and “trash”. The comments were posted on 19 September.

Pegida spokeswoman Kathrin Oertel, told Spiegel Online Bachmann’s resignation was the “only possibilty for the movement”.

A spokesman for Bernd Lucke, the head of the political party Alternative für Deutschland, an anti-euro party which has publicly expressed an allegiance with the aims of Pegida, said that with his “sad utterings and disgusting jokes”, Bachmann had “embarrassed the people of Pegida who have been compelled by honest concerns to take to the streets”.

Responding to the picture, Bachmann told Wednesday’s Bild: “I took the photo at the hairdresser’s, for the publication of the audiobook of the satire He’s Back … you need to be able to joke about yourself now and then”. Asked about the derogatory comments he allegedly made about immigrants, Bachmann replied: “We don’t comment about private matters.”

Bachmann, who has multiple convictions for burglary, assault and drug possession, was said by German intelligence services to be a target for Islamist terrorists who said on social media sites they intended to kill him.

800 000 rally against Charlie Hebdo in a country of 1.3 million

Nearly one million Muslims rallied in Grozny, Chechnya against the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. There are only 1.3 million people in all of Chechnya.

They’re more upset with the magazine than they are with the killer Kouachi brothers.

Voice of America reported:

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Russian Muslim region of Chechnya gathered in the regional capital Grozny on Monday to protest against caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Chechnya’s Interior Ministry said more than a million people attended the demonstration. Earlier Monday, the Russian Interior Ministry had estimated the number of attendees at more than 800,000.

The republic’s population is around 1.3 million.

Before the rally, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov urged people to attend to protest against what he called “the vulgarity, immorality, lack of culture, and the shamelessness of those who drew the caricatures of the Prophet.”

Earlier this month, gunman attacked the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing 12 people. The killings were said to be retaliation for the publication’s depictions of Muhammad.

Some of the Chechen protesters Monday carried signs reading “Hands off the Prophet Muhammad,” Addressing the crowd, Kadyrov declared “If needed, we are ready to die to stop anyone who thinks that you can irresponsibly defile the name of the Prophet.”

Source: Gateway Pundit

German PEGIDA cancels rally over death threats

German PEGIDA movement, which stands against ‘the Islamization of the West’ has canceled next week’s rally in the city of Dresden after threats were issued against one of its top organizers.

The Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) movement has been holding protests every Monday in the eastern German city of Dresden since October.

The rallies, which initially gathered no more than 500 people, hit a record attendance of 25,000 last week.

PEGIDA announced on its Facebook page that the rally planned for January 19 has been called off after the police said “there is a specific threat against a member of the organization team.”

According to DPA news agency, the threats were filed by Islamic radicals against the movement’s co-leader, Lutz Bachmann.

The German police were informed of the threats against Bachman by foreign secret services, the agency added.

A spokesman for the Dresden police said that they had placed a “general ban” on all public gatherings on Monday, Reuters reported.

“The police in Dresden have received information of a concrete threat against the weekly PEGIDA rally,” a statement by Dresden police said. “Assassins have been called up to mingle among the PEGIDA protestors and murder one of the individuals leading the rally.”

Instead of taking to the streets, PEGIDA called on all Europeans who oppose “religious bigotry any kind” to hang the national flag of their country out of their windows and light a candle on Monday.

PEGIDA is currently the most supported anti-immigration movement in Germany as rallies by similar organizations in other cities have so far been unable to draw anywhere near as much people.

The Dresden group was criticized by many German politicians, with Chancellor Angela Merkel calling PEGIDA “racists full of hatred.”

‘I am Muhammad, not Charlie’

Blasphemy and vulgarity must stop was the message from religious leaders at Athlone Stadium, where thousands of Muslims gathered to celebrate the life of Prophet Muhammad.

Dressed in white, young and old, male and female bowed their heads on Sunday and kneeled in prayer.

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille told the audience that the event has been celebrated in South Africa since the 17th century.

“When we are able to witness thousands of people gathering to celebrate an auspicious religious occasion such as today, we feel increasingly confident in our efforts to create spaces for people to express their beliefs.”

She added that all religious movements have an important part to play by decrying the wrongs in society.

“Islam is renowned for the value and importance it places on compassion.

Sheikh Achmat Taheer Mohamed, a lecturer from the Madina Institute and an imam at the Vangate Mosque, said the day was to commemorate, celebrate and remember Prophet Muhammad’s way of life.

“You will never find a Muslim saying or writing anything against any other religion.

“If you have found anything of that kind, you know that it is not Islam, because it is not what is preached by Islam.

“If you look into the history of Islam you will find that there is no such record where Muslims had blasphemed against any other religion.”

He added that cartoons about Prophet Muhammad, such as those featured in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo where 12 people were murdered recently, was only done to aggravate “the masses”.

“We know that whatever cartoon or things that are done is only creating more love and more awareness of Prophet Muhammad.

“When 9/11 took place, people blamed Islam. A cousin of mine who was in the US said when people went to libraries to find copies of the Qur’an they couldn’t find any copies. Why? Because people became curious about what Islam was all about.

“And so, basically, this is an advertisement. We don’t worry about it, don’t get angry about it, we say let them carry on, we need to do what we need to do. We spread the love and we spread the love of Prophet Muhammad.”

Sheikh Abdurahmaan Alexander said he supported freedom of speech.

“In solidarity with 1.7 billion Muslims around the world, we support the freedom of speech, but we do not support blasphemy. We do not support vulgarity, and as they said, ‘I am Charlie’, I’m saying to you in one voice, I am Muhammad.

“We support freedom of speech. We want world peace. Blasphemy and vulgarity must stop.”

Source: IOL

Record crowd turn up for PEGIDA rally

‘Today Paris, tomorrow Dresden,’ read one sign. Another’s message was: ‘Better to stand tall for Pegida today than to be on your knees for Mecca tomorrow’

The latest mass-rally of the self-styled “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West” came just hours after the chancellor Angela Merkel said that “Islam has a place in Germany.” German politicians previously called on Pegida to cancel their weekly march.

But in Germany, citizens are increasingly worried, with 57% of non-Muslims seeing Islam as a threat.

Overall, 61 percent of Germans say Islam isn’t compatible with life in the West, up from 52 percent three years ago. The country has 4 million Muslims out of a population of 81 million.

“There’s deep frustration over the silent Islamization taking place in Germany,” said Gerd Medger, 67, who advises companies seeking business contacts in Brazil and attended the Dresden rally waving a German flag. “If our governments let such violent people into Europe then we shouldn’t be surprised at these acts of violence.”

PEGIDA has said on its Facebook page that the killings at Charlie Hebdo in Paris confirmed its own views.

“The Islamists, which PEGIDA has been warning about for 12 weeks, showed France that they are not capable of democracy but rather look to violence and death as an answer,” it said.

The supporters of the populist movement claim solidarity with victims of the Paris attacks, with some of them carrying signs that read “They can’t kill our freedom” and “Je suis Charlie.”

According to the police estimates, some 25,000 people gathered in an anti-immigration rally in Dresden.

Besides Dresden, which serves as a central city for the movement, marches are organized in several other cities, including Berlin, Munchen, and, for the first time, Leipzig.

The number of people protesting against PEGIDA is also growing every week.

Monday’s rallies come ahead of a planned vigil for “tolerance and openness” in Berlin,which is set for Tuesday.

Germany’s Muslim leaders, with Chancellor Angela Merkel as well leaders of Germany’s Jewish community will attend.

“Politics cannot ignore this: they have to do something even if it’s only symbolic on immigration or security,” Joerg Forbrig, the senior program director at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., said by phone from Berlin.“The CDU must take this seriously. They have to preempt the AfD otherwise there will be a stronger momentum building behind the party.”

Swiss activists have founded a local branch of the popular German anti-Muslim PEGIDA movement. The group is boasting a fast growth in supporters and plans to hold a demonstration next month.

The Swiss branch of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) was launched two days after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.

The PEGIDA group’s Facebook page calls on potential supporters to come to a demonstration planned for February 16 at an as yet undisclosed location.

The spokesman for Swiss PEGIDA is Ignaz Bearth, current head of the Swiss Direct Democracy Party, a small party with links to France’s Front National party, according to AFP. He is also a former member of the far-right Swiss Nationalist Party.

Vilification of Germany’s PEGIDA

Actually it’s more than that. It has now come to falsification and censorship. Says Udo Ulfkotte, German maverick journalist and whistleblower

Is there a Nobel Prize for media falsification, lies and betrayal of readers? Judging by the way German mainstream media are covering PEGIDA there has to be one, argues Udo Ulfkotte in his latest piece for KOPP online, his publisher’s news website.

The tactics honed against Russia are now being put in place to defame PEGIDA – those Dresden conservatives who dare peacefully to protest uncontrolled immigration and Islamization, as well as the creation of parallel sharia tribunal in Germany, among other things.

PEGIDA also has a soft spot for Putin’s Russia, judging from some of the placards seen during their demos.

MDR is Germany’s first channel in the Eastern states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. On Jan 06 it asked its viewers „Do you think PEGIDA damages the city of Dresden?“.

Some 10,958 viewers took part in the snapshot survey.

Surprise surprise. Only 7% agreed with the preset answer: „Yes, because it casts the city in a false light“, while 92% of respondents chose: „No, why? At last somebody dares to speak the truth“.

Be it Iraq, Crimea or PEGIDA, ordinary Germans just will not think the way the media tell them to. Journalism (asking people what they think) and propaganda (telling them what to think) are increasingly hard to reconcile in the age of social media, as journalists found out during the Ukraine crisis.

What to do with these embarrassing survey result? What to do?

It could not be blamed on Russian propaganda. Nor on Kremlin trolls. So there seemed to be no way out… Germany’s first channel had apparently shot itself in the foot again.

Wait: what about a little censoring? After all, it is for a good cause, the MDR editors must have thought. So the snapshot survey quietly disappeared from their website, hoping nobody would notice. Except that lots of people did. And they resorted to protesting on Facebook.

The result: after apologizing to their angry viewers MDR put the survey back online. It seems some media hacks occasionally dislike what they see in the mirror.

The survey and its censoring having gone wrong, German media have now started to make unfounded claims against PEGIDA. Apparently it has been „infiltrated“ by Nazis.

As if Germans had not seen enough real Nazis, supported by the USA and the EU, doing real Nazi things, from burning people alive in Odessa to cluster bombing civilians in Donbass.

As if, ignored by Western media, a real Nazi parade had not been staged as recently as Jan 1 in Kiev!

But this time we don’t have to worry: PEGIDA alleged infiltration is being carefully monitored by never heard before „constitution protection groups“. After all, Nazism is illegal in Germany – unless it operates near Russian borders that is.

According to Ulfkotte, the message is clear: „dear citizen, don’t get involved with PEGIDA if you don’t want to be monitored by the constitution protectors“.

Sounds vaguely Orwellian, doesn’t it?

Finally, Ulfkotte proves the bias of German media with a recent example.

A God-hater whom the media called Moroccan badly damaged a Church in South Tirol, Italy’s only German-speaking province:

„Imagine if a Christian or an Atheist had damaged a mosque in a German-speaking region,” says Ulfkotte, “there would be candle-lit demonstrations all over the country, and you could not turn a television on without hearing about it.”

“But it was a Muslim who did it, and in the name of the Koran. What has happened then? You can see for yourself. Nothing”

“Next time a journalist assures you that Islamization is not taking place, please remember them that the Moroccan in question, who had damaged churches before, never spent a single day in jail for it. He was placed under house arrest instead”.

One needs not agree with Ulfkotte about the link between lenient treatment by the Italian judiciary and alleged Islamization. But the more general points he makes about German media are correct and have been vindicated time and time again.

MDR is part of ARD, a public network of public broadcasters known in Germany as “Das Erste” or the first channel.

When, in June 2014, ARD’s own advisory board released a report, defining ARD coverage of the Ukraine crisis as “inadequate, one-sided and biased”, news of the report took three months to begin circulating in the… wait for it… alternative media.

And it never did in the mainstream media.

Source: Daniele Pozzati

Arson attack on German newspaper

A Hamburg daily that reprinted satirical cartoons from French newspaper Charlie Hebdo was hit by arsonists at the weekend, raising security concerns in Germany on the eve of a planned mass rally against Islam in the city of Dresden.

Islamist militant attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher deli in Paris this week that killed 17 people have fuelled fears of similar assaults in other European countries and prompted a warning from German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

“I am very concerned about well-prepared perpetrators like those in Paris, Brussels, Australia or Canada,” he told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. There were about 260 people in Germany regarded as dangerous Islamists, he said.

Bild am Sonntag said US intelligence agencies had tapped conversations of senior Islamic State (IS) members in which they said the Paris attacks were the start of a series in Europe.

In Hamburg, two people were arrested after an incendiary device was thrown into a building of the Hamburger Morgenpost daily, setting some documents on fire, police said.

Source: Reuters

Support for Geert Wilders doubles after Paris attack

Support for the anti-Islamic Freedom Party (PVV) of Dutch politician Geert Wilders has jumped to its highest level in more than a year after the Islamist militant attacks in Paris.

Wilders, known for his cool rhetoric, said after the Paris bloodshed that the West was “at war” with Islam, drawing a rebuke from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Sunday.

If elections were held now, his party would be the single largest in the Netherlands, with 31 seats in the 150-member parliament, more than twice as many as it won in the last elections, according to a Sunday poll.

The governing Liberal and Labour parties, damaged by persistent sluggish growth, would have just 28 seats between them, compared to the 79 they held after the 2012 elections.

The Freedom Party was polling 30 seats just prior to the Jan. 7-9 Paris attacks, in which 17 people including journalists and policemen were killed by three Islamist gunmen who were later shot dead by French special forces.

Wilders this week called in an interview for measures against Islam: “If we don’t do anything, it will happen here,” he was quoted by the newspaper Het Parool as saying.

More than 80 percent of respondents to the De Hond poll said people who left the Netherlands to wage jihad (holy war) in Syria should lose their Dutch citizenship and those returning from fighting in Syria or Iraq should face lengthy jail terms.

The attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo had particular resonance in the Netherlands. In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, known for making anti-Islam remarks that were designed to offend, was stabbed to death by an Islamic radical as he cycled down an Amsterdam street.

Wilders, who has described Islam as a “lie” and the prophet Muhammad as a “criminal”, has lived in hiding and under 24-hour armed guard since van Gogh’s murder.

He is currently facing prosecution over remarks he made at an election rally last year, when he appeared to call for “fewer Moroccans” in the city of The Hague, and later referred in a television interview to “Moroccan scum”.

Source: Reuters

Twelve killed in attack on French satirical magazine

Masked gunmen stormed the offices of a French satirical newspaper Wednesday, killing 11 people before escaping, police and a witness said. The weekly has previously drawn condemnation from Muslims.

French President Francois Hollande called the slayings a terrorist attack and said that several other terror attacks have been thwarted “in recent weeks.”

Xavier Castaing, head of communications for the Paris police prefecture, confirmed the deaths in the shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that been repeatedly threatened for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, among other controversial sketches.

Hollande rushed to the scene and top government officials planned an emergency meeting.

Luc Poignant, an official of the SBP police union, said the attackers escaped in two vehicles.

A witness to the attack, Benoit Bringer, told the iTele network he saw multiple masked men armed with automatic weapons at the newspaper’s office in central Paris.

Source: AP

Second French jihad attack as driver ploughs into pedestrians

A driver shouting “Allahu Akbar”  ploughed into pedestrians in eastern France Sunday, injuring 11 of them, just a day after a man yelling the same words was killed in an attack on police officers.

Two of the people injured in the car attack in the city of Dijon were in a serious condition, a police source said, adding that the driver had been arrested.

France is still reeling from a suspected radical Islamic attack on Saturday that saw a French convert to Islam shot dead after attacking police officers with a knife while also reportedly crying “Allahu Akbar” in the central town of Joue-les-Tours.

The assailant, Burundi-born French national, Bertrand Nzohabonayo seriously injured two officers — slashing one in the face — and hurting another.

The 20-year-old attacker also cried “Allahu Akbar” during the assault, said a source close to the case speaking on condition of anonymity.

The assault prompted the government to step up security at police and fire stations nationwide.

The anti-terror branch of the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a probe into that attack, with the line of inquiry focusing on whether it was motivated by radical Islam.

The weekend incidents in France come as governments around the world brace for so-called “lone wolf” attacks by individuals returning from waging jihad abroad, or who are simply following Islamic State group calls for violence in the countries involved in a coalition fighting the militants in Iraq and Syria.

The group has repeatedly singled out France for such attacks, most recently in a video posted on jihadist sites this week.

Last week in Australia, an Iranian-born Islamist with a history of extremism and violence entered a cafe and held people hostage for 16 hours before being killed. Two of the hostages also died.

Source: Yahoo

WIN/Gallup poll: US represents threat to world peace

Is the most dangerous country in the world the United States of America? According to a new poll from WIN and Gallup International, the U.S. represents the largest threat to world peace today.

In their annual End of Year poll, researchers for WIN and Gallup International surveyed more than 66,000 people across 65 nations and found that 24 percent of all respondents answered that the United States “is the greatest threat to peace in the world today.” Pakistan and China fell significantly behind the United States on the poll, with 8 and 6 percent, respectively. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea all tied for fourth place with 4 percent.

Much of the animosity toward America comes from Muslim Middle Eastern and North African nations, all located in a region most likely to be affected by American military actions over the past decade. Forty-four percent of Pakistani respondents, for instance, voted America as the most dangerous nation, despite Pakistan’s acceptance of U.S. foreign aid. The Chinese and Russians rated the United States as dangerous even more than Pakistanis did, at 54 and 49 percent, respectively.

However, a plurality of people polled in several officially American-allied nations also rated the United States as dangerous. Thirty-seven percent of Mexicans and 17 percent of Canadians view their neighboring country with suspicion on the world stage. A surprising 13 percent of American respondents rated their own nation the biggest threat to world peace as well.

While poll respondents seem anxious about the United States’ role in world affairs, many of them would have no problems moving to America if they could. The United States topped WIN/Gallup’s list of top countries people would move to with 9 percent of the vote. Canada and Australia came in second with 7 percent apiece, while 38 percent said they were happy exactly where they are.

Overall, responders seemed remarkably optimistic about their own futures, despite any misgivings about the United States. Nearly 50 percent of responders say that 2014 will be better than 2013, the first time since 1990 that people thought a better year was on the way.

“Despite an unstable economic situation, our happiness index is extremely high all over the world except in Europe,” Jean-Marc Leger, President of WIN/Gallup International Association, said in a statement. “Moreover people think that 2014 will be better than 2013. Optimism is back in the world.”

Germans take to the streets against Islam

Anti-immigration protest is sweeping across Germany, as thousands take to the streets against what they say is the growing “Islamisation” of the country.

Demonstrators have adopted the old rallying call of the protests against the East German communist regime that brought down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, “Wir sind das Volk”. They say they want to preserve Western culture.

The protests come as Bavaria’s ruling Christian Social Union (CSU) is seeking to distance itself from a draft proposal for its party conference which said that immigrants should speak German not only in public, but at home as well.

Germany is now the second most popular destination in the world for migrants, after the US, and the country is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers.

Thousands have defied sub-zero temperatures to join weekly marches each Monday in Dresden under the banner of Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of Europe, or Pegida.

The protests were started by a local man, Lutz Bachmann, with no background in politics. When he called his first demonstration in October, only a few hundred turned up, but the movement has snowballed, and last week 7,500 came.

Pegida has inspired similar movements across Germany. Though the numbers have not been as high as in Dresden so far, marches have been called in cities from Düsseldorf to Munich.

Bachmann has been at pains to stress that he is not opposed to genuine political refugees, only to economic migrants who “take advantage” of the German system, and has no problem with Islam but is worried about erosion of German culture.

Concerns for the German culture plunged Bavaria’s ruling CSU into its own controversy, after a draft proposal for the opening motion at the party conference called for immigrants to speak German at home.

“Whoever wants to live here permanently should be encouraged to speak German in public and within the family,” the draft said.

After a storm of criticism, including the Twitter hashtag YallaCSU, Arabic for “Let’s go, CSU”, and questions over how such a policy could possibly be enforced, Andreas Scheuer, the party’s general secretary, sought to limit the damage.

Austria ammends 102-year-old law on Islam

Fear of extremism has led to Austria having drafted amendments to a 102-year-old law on Islam. Muslim organizations are to be banned from being financed from abroad, while the Koran is to get a unified German-language translation.

The amendments have already been criticized for singling out Islam, which has so far existed in Austria on equal terms with other religions like Catholicism, Lutheranism, Judaism and Buddhism.

Chancellery Minister Josef Mayer said that the new regulations were very carefully drafted based on discussions with the country’s Muslim community and that the changes to the 1912 law on Islam were needed as “a lot has changed” since it was adopted, according to Austria Press Agency.

Foreign Affairs and Integration Minister Sebastian Kurz was more specific on the purpose of updating the law on Islam.

“If you don’t have orderly legal regulation… this can always bring dangers. In this sense, if you like this is maybe a part of prevention,” he told reporters, as cited by Reuters.

The amendments to the law are being worked out amid Austrians growing increasingly worried over reports of around 140 Austrians fighting alongside jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Austria’s counter-terrorism body also warned in August that Vienna was “attracting foreign fighters from all over Europe,” being a convenient stop on their way to Syria.

The fear of extremist groups could be the reason Austria has witnessed right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) rising in popularity. An August opinion poll published by Der Standard showed the FPÖ had support of 28 percent of the poll participants, more than any other political party.

The new legislation on Islam will prohibit Austrian Imams from being employed by foreign countries and Muslim organizations obtaining finance from abroad.

That would outlaw the country’s 65 Imams currently employed by Turkey – roughly a fifth of all of Imams in Austria.

One of the two official Muslim organizations in Austria has already voiced its discontent.

“[The bill] mirrors in its overtone the spirit of the times we currently perceive, which is marked by blanket suspicion and mistrust against Muslims,” said Carla Amina Baghajati, spokeswoman of the Islamic Community of Faith in Austria (IGGIO).

Critics of the law point at it being unjust in creating unequal conditions for different religions.

“It will create an impression as if Muslims are a potential problem group,” Islam expert Thomas Schmid Inger told ORF. “I would have liked it better if you had one law for all religious communities and all religious communities in Austria were really treated equally.”

Another thing the new law demands is a standardized German-language translations of the Koran. Austrian leadership believes that’s not going to be a problem.

“Am I skeptical when I hear this is difficult or not easily done? Fundamentally no,” said Kurz, as cited by Reuters.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Muslim community argue that coming up with a unified translation of the Koran is against principles of the religion. The Arabic version of the Koran is perceived as the word of Allah in Islam, and no translation of it can be absolutely accurate.

That’s not the first legislative initiative in Austria inspired by the rise of extremism in Iraq and Syria. Austrian authorities announced in mid-September they were planning to ban terrorist-related symbols, starting with the flag of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS or ISIL) extremist movement.

Source: RT