Austria votes new law on Islam

VIENNA: Austria’s parliament is expected to pass a bill on Wednesday amending laws on Muslim organisations which will ban foreign sources of financing and require Imams to be able to speak German.
The text aims to promote what conservative Integration Minister Sebastian Kurz calls an “Islam of European character” by muting the influence of foreign Muslim nations and organisations, and offering Austrian Muslims a mix of increased rights and obligations in practising their faith in the central European country.
Austria’s current “law on Islam” dates to 1912, after the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian empire.
The two-year-old bill before parliament predates the recent Jihadist violence in France and Denmark but is designed to “clearly combat” the growing influence of Islam, Kurz said.
The text is expected to clear the broad conservative-leftist coalition in power, and is being closely watched by other European countries facing the problem of spreading extremism.
Earlier this month French Prime Minister Manuel Valls similarly raised the notion of banning foreign funding of Islamic organisations. Kurz says officials in Germany and Switzerland have also expressed interest in the bill.
Voting on the law comes amid estimates indicating around 200 people from Austria — including women and minors — have gone to Syria and Iraq to join jihadist militias like Islamic Front.
A poll published by the OGM institute on Tuesday found 58 percent of Austrians feeling radicalisation of the nation’s Muslims was underway.