Austria plans to shut down mosques, expel foreign-funded imams

Austria’s right-wing government plans to shut down seven mosques and expel up to 40 imams in what it said was “just the beginning” of a push against Islamist ideology and foreign funding of religious groups.

The coalition government, an alliance of conservatives and the far right, came to power soon after Europe’s migration crisis on promises to prevent another influx and clamp down on benefits for new immigrants and refugees.

In 2015 as minister in charge of integration, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz oversaw the passing of a “law on Islam,” which banned foreign funding of religious groups and created a duty for Muslim societies to have “a positive fundamental view towards [Austria’s] state and society.”

“Political Islam’s parallel societies and radicalizing tendencies have no place in our country,” Kurz told a news conference outlining the government’s decisions, which were based on that law.

Austria, a country of 8.8 million people, has roughly 600,000 Muslim inhabitants, most of whom are Turkish or have families of Turkish origin.

One society that runs a mosque in Vienna and is influenced by the “Grey Wolves,” a Turkish nationalist youth group, would be shut down for operating illegally, the government said in a statement.

An Arab Muslim group that runs at least six mosques will also be shut down.

“This is just the beginning,” far-right Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache told the news conference held by four cabinet members.

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the move was the result of an “Islamophobic, racist and discriminatory wave” and was an attempt to target Muslim communities for political gains.

“The Austrian government’s ideologically charged practices are in violation of universal legal principles, social integration policies, minority rights and the ethics of co-existence,” he tweeted.