In May last year, Unzensuriert.at reported on the enquiry by Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer and the response by Interior Minister Karl Nehammer ( Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP)). At that time it became known that about 60 so-called “Foreign Terrorist Fighters” (FTF) were not known their whereabouts in Austria. These are persons who have travelled abroad to fight for terrorist organisations. These FTF are usually IS terrorists who come home.
Michael Schnedlitz, General Secretary of the Freedom Party, has now followed up with a parliamentary question of his own. In 2020, the Austrian security authorities were aware of 336 FTF in Austria. According to ÖVP Interior Minister Nehammer, however, the actual whereabouts in Austria of only 136 jihad returnees are known. The others have apparently gone into hiding. For Schnedlitz, the answer to his parliamentary question by the Ministry of the Interior is worrying: “It is simply unbelievable that the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution is only aware of the whereabouts of every third terrorist in Austria. These figures illustrate once again why the terrorist attack last November could take place at all.”
“The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) is not even able to monitor 336 terrorists. Understandable, if one considers the report of the Bern Club. But the real failure one has to blame on ÖVP Minister of the Interior Nehammer and his cabinet. They are not even capable of answering the simplest questions of a member of the National Council on Austria’s security. The question: ‘How many IS terrorists, sympathisers and radical Islamists are currently living in Austria?’ is more than justified since the terrorist attack in Vienna,” Schnedlitz said.
The reason for this parliamentary question was a study by the research institutes think.difference and SORA. More than 700 14- to 24-year-olds with Afghan, Syrian, Chechen, Bosnian, Kurdish and Turkish as well as no migration background were interviewed.
The results were shocking: almost every second young Afghan and Syrian is homophobic. Four out of ten Chechens and Turks are against homosexuality. But anti-Semitism is also extremely widespread among young Afghans and Syrians. For example, two-thirds of all Afghans regard Israel as an enemy. Four out of ten Syrians and Turks, as well as every third Chechen and Bosnian, also think this way.
“The results of the study remained uncommented.This is party politics of the ÖVP at the expense of national security. The parliamentary right of interpellation is being trampled underfoot. This is shameful,” criticised the FPÖ Secretary General.