Austrian law rules imams must be able to speak German

Austria’s parliament has passed a bill amending historical 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 called 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. However, the law has generated opposition from several quarters, including Austrian Muslim groups that call it “discrimination” that imposes restrictions on Islam that other religions are not saddled with.

We want an Islam of the Austrian kind, and not one that is dominated by other countries.

Sebastian Kurz, a conservative foreign minister who is one of Austria’s most popular politicians

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 predates the recent shootings in France and Denmark but is designed to “clearly combat” the growing influence of radical Islam, Kurz said. 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.

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