The terrorist attack in Vienna a week ago, causing the deaths of four innocent people and injuring two dozen, appears to be a political wake-up call. Within hours dozens of house searches were carried out in three states and radical Islamists linked to the terrorist were arrested. Shortly afterwards, two Viennese mosques were officially closed down. On Monday morning a major raid was carried out in Austria against the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Some 70 people are now under investigation for financing terrorism and money laundering.No, one cannot accuse the government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz ( Austrian People’s Party) of not having noticed the problem of a radical,violently Islamist subculture: The government agenda of 2017 already states that “the greatest threat to Austria’s internal security emanates from Islamic extremism”. One would “counteract an increasing, above all Islamist radicalisation, the emergence of parallel societies and increased influence from abroad”. The documentation centre “political Islam” agreed with the Greens in the government programme 2020 has been set up and must now start its work.Austria’s government has taken note of the problem. All the more reason to ask why an IS sympathiser who wanted to murder in Syria was able to meet Salafists from Germany and Switzerland after his arrest without being noticed by the authorities;why he tried to buy ammunition for an assault rifle in Slovakia without being arrested in Austria; why the mosques where he was radicalised are only currently being investigated. The terrorist attack on All Souls’ Eve was like a wake-up call. Now it is essential that politicians and society remain vigilant and alert.
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Antisemitism, Antizionism, Jihadism and the Reunited Germany. News by Fred Alan Medforth