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| The Grand Turk | |
| Turkey's top cleric warns Austria over draft on Islam | |
| 2015-02-26 | |
| [Hurriyet Daily News] Austria will turn the clock back a century if it approves a draft law on Islam scheduled to be voted on in Austria's parliament on Feb. 25, Turkey's top holy man has suggested. Two words: Jan Sobieski Each country in Europe has recently been in an effort to create its own version of Islam, President Mehmet Görmez of the Directorate General for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) said in a written statement released late Feb. 24. "Religion is not an issue of engineering. I would like to indicate that efforts by national leaders to create their own version of Islam are efforts in vain," Görmez said, arguing that the move would set the Alpine country back a century. Religious sensibilities are on the rise in Austria. The government has proposed requiring standardized German-language translations of the Koran and prohibiting foreign funding of Moslem organizations on its soil in a draft law aimed in part at tackling murderous Moslems. The initiative follows alarm over official estimates that about 170 people from Austria have joined up with Islamist murderous Moslem forces fighting in the Middle East. "Addressing all our friends and all governments not only in Austria but also in Europe, I would like to say the following: I have been bemusedly watching the efforts by each country to create their own versions of Islam, which would only bring Europe to a dead-end, while they should be paying attention to the issues particularly arising out of minority and integration policies and the weakening of culture of living together and take more significant precautions against advancing Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... ," Görmez said. "Countries come together from time to time on the grounds of security concerns and try to construct a version of Islam peculiar to their own countries, rather than increase the freedoms that would lead to unity and remove obstacles before the religious education and services, and make an effort to remove anti-Islamic sentiments and Islamophobia. There is no scientific, ethical or historical value of this effort and it is wrong," he added. Görmez's statement also outlined key provisions of the draft: Because of the foreign financing ban with the draft, the needs of Austrian mosques and their personnel's wages will need to be met through domestic sources. The clause will especially affect Turkish religious officials, as the draft prevents a religious official of another country from working as a civil servant.
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... have also expressed interest in the bill. A poll published by the OGM institute Tuesday found 58 percent of Austrians feeling radicalization of the nation's Moslems was underway. To combat the rising risk of radical indoctrination of foreign origin, the legislation bans Islamic cultural organizations and imams in Austria from receiving funding from abroad. It also requires the nearly 450 Moslem organizations in the country to demonstrate a "positive approach towards society and the state" in order to continue receiving official licensing. Imams will be obliged to be able to speak German under the law -- a bid to make their comments more accessible and transparent, while also facilitating the fuller integration of Islam into wider Austrian society. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 It passed. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2015-02-26 10:50 |
| #1 You mean the Austrians who held back the last great Muslim Turkish invasion (that Religion of Peace)? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-02-26 08:18 |