Austria has said it will close down seven mosques and expel imams who it says are funded by foreign countries. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the move was a crackdown on political Islam. Some mosques are suspected of having links to Turkish nationalists. In April images emerged showing children in Turkish army uniforms re-enacting World War One's Battle of Gallipoli.
The Turkish president's office called Austria's move "Islamophobic, racist and discriminatory". Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin took to Twitter to condemn the move. The Austrian government says 60 of the 260 imams in the country are being investigated, of whom 40 belong to ATIB, a Muslim group close to the Turkish government. "Parallel societies, political Islam and radicalisation tendencies have no place in our country," said Chancellor Kurz on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment