16 suspected members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who are being investigated in the context of Operation Luxor, have unsuccessfully applied for the dismissal of the experts on the case. The Graz Regional Court does not accept their accusation that the two experts have an “Islamophobic attitude”.
Criticism of Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Milli Görüs is not Islamophobic. Investigations against people suspected of belonging to these organisations are therefore not either. Those who claim the opposite implicitly equate criticism of Islamism with criticism of Islam. With this argumentation – in short – the public prosecutor’s office in Graz, which is investigating “Operation Luxor”, counters the motions of those 16 alleged Muslim Brothers who had asked for the dismissal of the two experts – among other things on the grounds of Islamophobia. The Graz Regional Court agreed with this argumentation, as the decision available to eXXpress shows.
Since the raids on the houses of 30 suspected Muslim Brothers, some defendants have criticised the investigations sweepingly as Islamophobic and have also directed this accusation (among others) against the two expert witnesses – political scientist Nina Scholz and historian Heiko Heinisch. As eXXpress already reported, the court rejected these applications and saw no reason for bias. In the decision, which is available to eXXpress, a great deal of scope is given to dealing with the Islamophobia accusation. The public prosecutor’s office in Graz has its say in detail.Regarding the alleged bias of the experts, the public prosecutor’s office explains: “They (note: the defendants) do not discuss the term Islamophobia, but use it as a fighting term in order to be able to avoid the discussion of the content”. The experts’ report does not deal with the “religion Islam” but with “radical Islamist ideologies”. The prosecution repeatedly points to the implicit equation of Islamist ideologies with Islam on the part of the defendants and draws conclusions about these very defendants:
“The above-mentioned accused do not comprehensibly regard the investigations on the subject of the proceedings, in particular on the associations Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Milli Görüs and their activities in Austria as criticism of the religion Islam. From this it can be concluded that the named defendants do not regard these associations as political organisations oriented towards the ideology of radical Islamism, but … as sole representatives of the religion of Islam.”
Some defendants try to substantiate the Islamophobia allegation by referring to the Bridge Initiative website. This website is dedicated to Islamophobia and its alleged protagonists, including one of the two experts. Interesting: One of the accused – the political scientist Farid Hafez – is himself a member of the Bridge Initiative team, as the Graz public prosecutor’s office notes. In a text on this homepage, academics and lawyers speak out in favour of Hafez and actually describe the investigations against him and other suspected Muslim Brothers as Islamophobic – using, to put it politely, bold insinuations.
Thus, the raids are described as “use of anti-terror powers by the Austrian government”. After the terrorist attack of November 2, 2020, “the atmosphere of fear was used to legitimise mass raids against Professor Hafez and 29 other persons”. And: “The raids are an expression of the intensification of Islamophobia by the state in Austria”. The Austrian government thus wanted to censor and make invisible “criticism of this policy, which manifests itself in Islamophobia on the part of the state”.
The public prosecutor’s office in Graz replies: “However, the investigations are not directed against Islam or persons because they are Muslims”. It is about a “suspicious circumstances based on the aforementioned associations of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Milli Görüs, which act on the basis of radical Islamist ideologies”. The suspects are being investigated, among other things, on suspicion of membership in a terrorist organisation. “The religion of Islam is irrelevant for the present proceedings, as is the religious attitude of the suspects. The extent to which the suspects have participated as members in the Muslim Brotherhood, which is to be regarded as a terrorist organisation, is being investigated.”
The Graz Regional Court concluded that “the prosecution’s line of argumentation is convincing” and that the two experts had “convincingly denied any bias”.
https://exxpress.at/gericht-stellt-klar-kritik-an-islamisten-ist-nicht-islamophob/