Mounting attacks on the religious Muslim community, a leader of a far-right Austrian party has called for fighting “radical” Islam in kindergartens, reflecting a heightened Islamophobia in the European country.
“We need to find out which kindergartens and schools are committed to a violent ideology and may be sending young Muslims off to fight alongside Isis terrorists abroad,” a parliamentary motion tabled by the Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPO) was quoted by The Local.
Anti-Islam comments were spelled by FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who was re-elected as Vienna’s state party chairman on Sunday.
According to media sources, Strache has put fighting radical Islam, crime on the U-Bahn network, and immigration at the top of his agenda.
Protecting young children is important to “counteract dangerous currents,” he said in a speech at the Hofburg.
The party said local communities should be consulted before mosques are built, as they should be considered sensitive projects “in the face of the world situation”, and that they attract large crowds of people which results in an increase in noise and traffic.
Austrian Muslims are estimated at about half a million or nearly 6 percent of the European country's 8 million population.
In Vienna, Islam is the second-largest religious grouping, after Roman Catholicism.
Last October, a new amendment to Austria’s century-old law on Islam sparked Muslim concerns, appearing in the middle of rising tirade of Islamophobia.
Austria’s new Law on Islam will prohibit Muslim organizations receiving funding from abroad.
This will also affect imams who work in Austria but are financially supported by Turkey.
Currently, some 300 imams work in the country, including 65 Turkish scholars.
It will also compel Muslim organizations to teach at least one lesson in German, and states that officials within the community will be dismissed if they are found to have a criminal conviction or are considered to pose a threat to public safety.
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