(Wien) After the far-right Freedom
Party got elected this month as the ruling party of Austria, Muslims across the
country have expressed fears of a growth of intolerance against them. Councilman Omar al-Rawi has stated that it has
got so bad that Islamic asylum seekers are now far too scared to even visit the
mosque in which to pray:
"They say, 'We won't go to pray because maybe they will
think we are radicals so it's better not to pray'"
But then adds, until their refugee status is approved, that
is. It appears that Muslims feel that their rights have been trampled on and
point to how Austria banned the face-veil and, how a couple of years before, banned Islamic
institutions from raising funds abroad, but love to point out that no such ban exists
on Christian or Jewish institutions doing likewise.
Farid Hafez, a researcher at the University of Salzburg,
predicted that life will be worse for Muslims now than the last time this
governing coalition was in power in Austria from 2000-2005 and the reason for
that according to him is:
That's because the Freedom Party has changed its
"scapegoat from the Jew to the Muslim,"
One such example of this growing intolerance is how Herwig
Mahr, a regional lawmaker for the Freedom Party in Upper Austria, is pushing
for a German-language-only rule for students while they are at school, even
during recess. He said if students don't learn German, they can't function well
in Austrian society or at work. Wow , it really does seem like a totalitarian state
where they insist you speak the language
I have to laugh at how the followers of the most intolerant religion
going , plays the victim card when it doesn't get its own way.
