Austria shuts 7 mosques, expels political imams
News & Trends •
austria will expel several foreign-funded imams and shut seven mosques in a crackdown on political islam chancellor sebastian kurz announced on friday1 kurz said the moves came after an investigation by the religious affairs authority into images which emerged earlier this year of children in turkish-backed mosques playing dead and reenacting the world war i battle of gallipoli1 parallel societies political islam and radicalisation have no place in our country kurz said1 the photos published by the falter weekly showed the young boys in camouflage uniforms marching saluting waving turkish flags and then playing dead1 their corpses were then lined up and draped in the flags1 the mosque in question was run by the turkish-islamic cultural associations atib organisation based in the german city of cologne and a branch of turkeys religious affairs agency diyanet1 atib itself condemned the photos at the time calling the event highly regrettable1