De-Islamization drive accelerates in Europe; After France govt. of Austria orders closure of mosques
12 Nov 2020 21:35:44
In the wake of deadly terrorist attacks, Europe has openly waged a war against Islamist extremists. After France began to shut down mosques while cracking down on the institutions it suspects are spreading hate, now the Austrian government has ordered the closure of mosques that it deems a threat to national security.
While French PM Jean Castex has lately vowed to fight ‘relentlessly’ against radical Islam, it is the Austrian Government who has now agreed on a wide range of anti-terror measures in a crackdown on ‘politically motivated’ Islamic terror. Austrian police and intelligence service officers on Monday reportedly raided more than 60 homes, businesses and associations linked to radical Islamists, seizing millions of euros in cash across four provinces.
On Wednesday, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's cabinet agreed to the proposals that include the ability to keep individuals convicted of terror offences behind bars for life, electronic surveillance of people convicted of terror-related offences upon release and criminalizing religiously motivated political extremism.
“In the fight against political Islam, the ideological basis behind it, we are going to create a criminal offense called ‘political Islam’ in order to be able to move against those who aren’t terrorists but are preparing the ground for it,” Sebastian told reporters after a cabinet meeting, as reported by Aljazeera.
Kurz said even if people have served their sentences for such crimes, but are not yet seen as being completely “deradicalized”, ‘we will make it possible to lock those people up in order to protect the public.’ The operations came a week after a convicted Islamic State group terrorist killed four innocent people in central Vienna before being shot dead by police. Twenty others, including a police officer, were wounded in the attack.
The deadly attack in Vienna followed another ghastly attack in Nice, France, in which four people were killed by a terrorist reportedly of Tunisian origin.
Following the attack, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said his government would keep “fighting relentlessly” against “radical Islam” as he paid tribute to the three victims of the knife attack in the southern city of Nice last month, reported Aljazeera.
“We know the enemy. Not only has it been identified, but it has a name, it is radical Islam, a political ideology that disfigures the Muslim religion,” Castex said in a speech during a ceremony for the victims on Saturday.