generalspeaking

Never Too Late? Nonsense: Too Late

"There are countless translations, countless interpretations [of the Koran].We will be pushing for this vigorously. It is also in the interest of the Muslim community that words are correctly interpreted and reproduced."
"[...The primary purpose of the new Islam Law is to establish the] primacy of national law over religious law."
Austrian Minister for Integration and Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Kurz

"[The new Islam Law represents an] intolerable legal scandal [seeking to] place the broad mainstream of Muslims either under state supervision, or to split them into weak and therefore meaningless groups."Muslim Youth of Austria

"[...The new law is] "naive" [treating Muslims as] "second-class" [citizens]: We do not agree with the draft Islam Law. It was presented to the public without our approval."
"[An appeal would be launched with Austria's constitutional court to halt the law which] risks humiliating [Austria's Muslim population]."
Fuat Sanac, president, Austrian Islamic Community

As Mr. Kurz, Austrian Minister for Integration and Foreign Affairs would have it, from this time henceforth, with the bringing into law of new integrative measures for Austria's Muslim population, Muslim citizens of the country will be expected to adhere to Austrian values and to acknowledge the primacy of Austrian law over Islamic Sharia law. In practice, he said, this means that Muslims would be prohibited from citing Islamic law as legal justification for ignoring or disobeying Austrian civil laws. Sharia law has "no place" in Austria, he stressed.

What took so long? The current law pertaining to the Muslim population has been in effect for a Century, in response to the historic event of The Austro-Humgarian Empire annexing Bosnia-Herzegovina,in 1908, as a means by which Muslim soldiers would be integrated into the Habsburg Army, by recognizing Islam as a religious community within Austria, permitting Muslims to practise their religion in accord with Austrian state laws. Little did this majority Roman-Catholic country realize how matters would stand 100 years on.

The purpose of the bill is manifold; to deal with the devilish details inherent in the reality that Austria has absorbed its share of the Muslim tide that has overwhelmed Europe, and who, through their numbers, seek to wield influence disproportionate to their historical/heritage/cultural place in European society. The bill will as well address limiting religious and political influence within the country of foreign governments, prohibiting them (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Arab Gulf states) from financing Islamic centres and mosques.

The parallel Islamic society that has grown within the country is particularly targeted by its undeniable fact of existence, deleterious to the interests of Austria as a European state of Christian heritage, by the bill which will regulate mosques and require clerics to receive their training without exception, at Austrian universities. Muslim groups would be required under the newly-introduced law to terminate employment of clerics with criminal records or who are felt by authorities to represent a potential threat to public safety.

Turkey in particular will see its influence within Austria curtailed since 65 of the 300 clerics currently working in Austria are Turkish civil servants, their salaries paid for by the Religious Affairs Directorate of the Turkish government. Their loyalties are hardly divided; they are addressed to Turkey. The Turkish government is well known in Europe for throwing its weight around, protesting any European government moves to bring their Muslim populations in line with the entire social structure; Turkey claiming its duty to "protect" its post-national expatriate community.

Without foreign funding that many of the mosques depend upon in Austria as elsewhere in the world, many of the mosques in Austria would be "closed immediately", Muslim leaders argue; a matter of dire concern to them, one of quiet satisfaction perhaps, to the government. For lack of exterior financial support those mosques would no longer be financially viable. Claiming the prohibition of foreign funding targets Islam in particular, Muslim leaders argue this would violate provision of the Austrian constitution.

The emerging law, yet to become law, fails to apply similar restrictions to Christians or Jews, counters Muslim leaders and for obvious reasons.  Yet, exempt strangely enough from foreign funding restrictions is Vienna-based King Abdullah International Center for Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue, an innocuously-named institution which the Saudis spent multi-millions on, inaugurated in 2012 as a "propaganda center" within central Europe where anti-Western Wahhabist sentiment could be spread throughout Europe.

With Austria's Muslim population now representing 6% of the entire population, increased from its 2% 1990 level, a height of 8.5% (800,000 Muslims) is estimated by 2030. Vienna, Austria's capital city, the largest in the country, is now comprised of 60% immigrant stock. This shift appears irreversible. In Vienna, Muslim students outnumber Catholic students at middle and secondary schools, and stand on the cusp of overtaking Catholics in elementary schools.



Austria has been distinguished in other ways, as well, all leading from its growing Muslim population, leading to its having emerged as a base for radical Islam as a gateway through the Balkans for Europeans seek to join jihad in Syria. Austrian intelligence agency BVT warned in a June 2014 report of the "exploding radicalization of the Salafist scene in Austria". Salafism represents fundamentalist Islamism which abhors Western influence and seeks to impose Sharia law wherever Muslims congregate in large numbers. And undeniably, Muslims have converged in large numbers throughout Europe as they migrate from their countries of origin.

Those same countries of origin which deny their citizens free legal rights, places from which they migrated to seek a more stable, promising environment from which to launch their familial aspirations while unwilling to leave the very restraints imposed by Islamic principles and values behind, to take up the liberties and equalities guaranteed them in welcoming European countries which in their universal naivete never imagined their guests would embark on a mission to change their indigenous values, societal norms and laws.

Labels: Austria, Defence, Immigration, Islam, Islamism

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, October 21, 2014