Austria moves against Islamic radicals

Austria has never been a liberal society, so it is not surprising that it is to close seven mosques and expel up to 40 imams, in a move against Islamist ideology and foreign funding of religious groups.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz declared that “political Islam’s parallel societies and radicalising tendencies have no place in our country”. In 2015, he oversaw a tough “law on Islam”, which banned foreign funding of religious groups and created a duty for Muslim societies to have “a positive, fundamental view towards (Austria’s) state and society”.