On Tuesday evening, a service in progress at a parish church in the west of Vienna was disrupted. Several teenagers, estimated to be aged between 14 and 15, stood in the doorway of the church, laughing loudly and shouting “Allahu Akbar” repeatedly.
The parish priest, who has served the parish for two decades, expressed surprise at the incident and told the newspaper Die Presse that he had never experienced anything like it before. For security reasons, the priest did not disclose the exact location of the parish.
Despite the disruption, the vicar emphasised that there had been no specific danger. He attributed the incident to youthful exuberance and had therefore decided against reporting it to the police. However, the vicar expressed his irritation, as his parish has been actively supporting refugees since 2015, offering German language courses and assistance with dealing with the authorities. In conversation with a colleague, he learnt that similar incidents are now occurring more frequently in other districts of Vienna.
In the light of such incidents, both conservative politicians and secular initiatives are calling for more decisive action by the state governed by the rule of law. Rather than dismissing such incidents as mere ‘excesses’, there needs to be a clear zero-tolerance policy towards actions that endanger Christian life or the right to practise one’s faith without interference. Calls are being made for a stronger emphasis on teaching values in educational institutions, stricter monitoring of Islamist influences, and an unequivocal clarification that adapting to the rules of a free, democratic society is not a matter of discretion, but a prerequisite for living together in harmony.