Austria Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Friday Vienna will expel “several foreign-funded imams” and close seven mosques in a crackdown on what it called “political Islam.”
The decision was made after an inquiry into photos that were made in an Austrian mosque. They showed boys wearing military uniforms, marching, saluting, carrying Turkish flags in reenaction of 1915-16 battle of Gallipoli, which saw the defeat of the allied forces by the Turks during the World War I.
Kurz has been a consistent critic of “political Islam,” ordering the development of a “child protection” law banning hijabs in pre-schools and primary schools, in order to ensure that “children do not face discrimination at that age.”
Moreover, the chancellor has opposed Turkey’s accession to the EU, citing “system systematic violations of human rights and essential democratic values” by Ankara.
Source: Websites
