Commotion about a Bosnian mosque in Vöcklabruck: In a sermon in Bosnian language, an Islamic scholar gave a not quite as liberal understanding of Islam as is often expressed to the outside world. The construction of an Islamic cultural centre also led to confusion: At first there was only talk of a small prayer room, later a video in Bosnian language asked for donations for an “islamski centar”, i.e. an Islamic centre.
“We don’t want to build a mosque,” said the chairman of the “Bosniak-Austrian Cultural Association” Midhet Curic in an interview with the newspaper Oberösterreichische Nachrichten in 2011. The “neighbourhood is very important to us,” he affirmed. Later, a Bosnian-language video was published on social media, where Imam Adem Hasanovic called for donations for an Islamic centre to be built in Vöcklabruck. The association pretends to be liberal outwardly but, according to experts, invites fundamentalist guest preachers and shares questionable content on its Facebook page.
The founder of the citizens’ initiative “Zivilcourage”, Dr. Johann Hüthmair told eXXpress about the activities of the Bosnian community in recent years. At first, his association had only been founded because of disturbances of the peace complained about by residents. The headquarters of the “Bosniak-Austrian Cultural Association” had been directly in a warehouse building in the middle of a residential area. Although the Bosnian association had declared that it would not establish a mosque, according to residents, Friday prayers and holiday celebrations took place shortly after the association moved in. On religious holidays and during the fasting month of Ramadan, there was often noise all night. There was constant coming and going, “without any consideration for the neighbours”. On Friday afternoons, up to 150 men came to the housing estate for Friday prayers, on holidays more than 300 people, according to residents. The entire area was completely full of cars.
The Bosnian cultural association had tried several times to have the area reclassified in order to be able to expand; two reclassification procedures had been initiated. The Upper Austrian Regional Administrative Court refused four times, but the association did not give in. In 2017, the municipality subsequently reclassified the area. The sociologist expressed his disappointment with the former mayor Brunnsteiner ( ÖVP).”I simply don’t understand why there was factional pressure in the vote on the redesignation in 2017.” The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Greens would have voted for it anyway, and even representatives of the Bosnian mosque would have been members of the SPÖ at the municipal level. The fact that the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) voted in favour of the reclassification in favour of the mosque after rejecting the building project several times leaves a bitter aftertaste for Hochmair.
“It’s as if everything is not above board,” he commented on the reclassification. Soon the Bosnian-Islamic community will move to the outskirts of the city, where a large cultural centre is being built on a purchased piece of property. For Hüthmair it is incomprehensible that the area on which construction is taking place “has been reclassified from a commercial area to a special area. This means that all municipal and trade taxes are lost. And now guess who will pay the deficits? The citizen, that’s tax money.” He said there was already a regular shortage of parking spaces around the mosque. “The worshippers have been offered that they can park 800m away in front of a sports ground. But that is too far for them, they just park in the area. This often leads to traffic jams.”
Naš vrijedni džematlija Buljkić Muhamed i danas radi na pripremi terena. Da ga Uzvišeni Allah nagradi za uloženi trud i resurse koje stavlja na raspolaganje svome džematu
Gepostet von Džemat Vöcklabruck am Samstag, 17. Juli 2021
This Islamic centre is currently being built – here children will be taught theology, Bosnian-Islamic culture will be upheld and Friday prayers and other ceremonies will be held. There is gender segregation between men and women.
According to Hüthmair, the worshippers who regularly visit the Dzemat Vöcklabruck follow strict “Wahabi-Saudi” Islam. This would also cause astonishment among Muslim fellow citizens. “We have so many great, disciplined and well-integrated Muslims here in Vöcklabruck. And they also wonder what kind of Islam is being preached there by the Bosniaks.” Hüthmair is sure that the real masterminds are not in Austria. “The flow of money probably comes from Bosnia, where those who have something to say are based.
Hüthmair mentioned again and again when explaining the actions of the cultural association: “This is deliberate deception, the Islamic principle of taqiya. This is expressed by devaluing those of other faiths as infidels and deliberately lying to them for the sake of the Islamic goal. First it was said, ‘We are only a cultural association’, then it was preached after all, now even an Islamic centre is coming.” The residents and the city had been put off again and again by the Bosnian association, but then new demands had come and attempts had been made to ignore the residents.
Dzemat Vöcklabruck shows itself proud on Facebook – The construction work for the new large mosque has already begun: “Allahu akbar, praise be to Allah who has made this possible for us. Preparations for the start of construction of the mosque, Allah willing. We will all participate in the start of the construction of the mosque, Allah willing.”
Only recently, the sermon of a Bosnian imam in this very “Dzemat Vöcklabruck” caused an uproar on the web. The speech of the Bosnian is classified as “fundamentalist” by the Islamism expert Irfan Peci. In a video, the expert translated the speech of preacher Sefik Kurdic, which had been published exclusively in Bosnian language on the Facebook page of Dzemat Vöcklabruck, into German. In his speech, Kurdic exhorted the Islamic community, the “Ummah”, appealed to live Islam more strongly. “We all belong to the Ummah of Muhammad, no matter where we live and on which part of the earth we move,” the Bosnian preacher said. However, he said, before one can push for the transformation of the state in which one lives in favour of Islam, one must first ask oneself “whether one has Islamised and disciplined oneself and one’s family”.
This is what the Prophet Muhammad did with his companions: “This is how they were able to establish an Islamic state, an Islamic government, an Islamic army and an Islamic society in Medina. The number of Muslims who were in a country was of secondary importance if they were only sincere believers, the Imam said: “The Prophet created a whole system, a state of his own, with 1500 followers.” Visibly incensed by the community’s un-Islamic behaviour, he added: “What is wrong with you?
The mosque’s contacts with certain associations are also questionable. There are joint projects with the Turkish “Alif” youth organisation in Attnang-Puchheim. According to Elisabeth Mahnal, chairwoman of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), this is “a regional representation of the nationalist-Islamist Milli Görüs. An imam, whose sermon is still online on the mosque’s website, hints at the fate of those who are different and unbelievers with theological narratives: “He died as an unbeliever and went to hell because of it” – but he says this in the Bosnian language.
https://exxpress.at/imam-predigt-in-oesterreichischer-moschee-die-welt-gehoert-allah/