Austria shuts mosques and expels imams in crackdown on extremism

THE Austrian government is to order the closure of seven mosques and expel up to 60 imams in a crackdown on political Islam and Turkish nationalism, it announced yesterday.

“Parallel societies, political Islam and radicalisation have no place in our country,” Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, said. Six of the seven mosques are being closed on suspicion of links to Islamic extremism. They are run by the Arab Religious Community, which the government has also ordered to be shut down.

The seventh mosque is to be closed on suspicion of links to the Grey Wolves, a far-right Turkish nationalist group.

The move comes after images emerged earlier this year of children as young as four being made to wear Turkish army uniforms and salute the Turkish flag inside the mosque in Vienna’s Favoriten district.

Two imams have received deportation orders, and another 60 are under investigation and could face expulsion along with their family members, Herbert Kickl, the interior minister, said.

They include 40 members of the Union of Turkish-islamic Cultural Associations in Europe, a group close to the Turkish government which is also suspected of links with the Grey Wolves.

Turkey reacted angrily to the move. “Austria’s decision to close seven mosques and expel imams is a reflection of the Islamophobic, racist and discriminatory wave in this country,” a spokesman for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president, said. Austria denied that the move targeted Muslims in general and said it was only directed at politicised mosques whose activities were not in line with the country’s constitution.

Mr Kurz is in coalition with the farright Freedom Party, and his government has been accused of fanning populist anti-muslim sentiment.

The Austrian government says the group is promoting the hardline Salafi school of Islam followed by extremists such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and al-qaeda.