THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
The Austrian government is closing down seven mosques because they allegedly “lack a positive mindset” towards Austria.
Citing a 2015 law that prevents religious communities from receiving funding from abroad, the government also plans to expel 40 imams employed by ATIB, a group that oversees Turkish mosques in Austria.
“Even if there were mistakes, even if these mosque communities have made mistakes, how do parallel societies emerge? With exclusion policies. We need warmer, welcoming policies in Austria, no matter what influences come from abroad. We must ensure that we can win these people over to Austria,” says ATIB spokesman Ersoy Yasar.
Imams have been funded from abroad, insists Yasar, because proper imam training in Austria still does not exist.
“I do not believe that Turkish right-wing extremism can be handled successfully simply by banning it. The problem has to be tackled differently in my opinion,” says a political scientist and expert on Islam from the University of Vienna, Thomas Schmidinger.
“The Gray Wolf Mosque here at Vienna’s Antonsplatz square is also being closed down by the government. The Islamic community itself had previously classified this allegedly right-wing extremist mosque as illegal. Turkey has meanwhile strongly criticised Austria’s measures, calling them Islamophobic, discriminatory and racist,” reports euronews’ Johannes Pleschberger.
© Euronews
