Austria Govt to shutdown Mosques

Vienna, June 08: Austria government has plans to shut seven mosques and could expel dozens of imams in what it said was "just the beginning" of a push against radical Islam and foreign funding of religious groups that Turkey condemned as racist.

The moves follow a "law on Islam", passed in 2015, which banned foreign funding of religious groups and created a duty for Muslim organizations 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," said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who, in a previous job as a minister in charge of integration, steered the Islam bill into 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.

1/Austria’s decision to close seven mosques and expel imams is a reflection of the Islamophobic, racist and discriminatory wave in this country. It is an attempt to target Muslim communities for the sake of scoring cheap political points.

— Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) June 8, 2018