A dangerous alliance between the far left and radical Islam: the Viennese party LINKS is calling for an attack on the headscarf ban and blaming the state and the media for alleged racism. This deliberate blurring of boundaries threatens social harmony in the capital.
The radical Viennese group LINKS is causing outrage with a scandalous campaign. The slogan ‘Allahu Akbar’ is emblazoned in huge letters on its official platforms – a phrase that has evoked deeply negative associations long before the recent Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe. Instead of clearly distancing itself from Islamist ideology, the far-left party is deliberately using the slogan as a hook to mobilise opposition to the planned headscarf ban in schools and to reinterpret this misogynistic symbol as a matter of so-called religious freedom.
In an unprecedented reversal of the perpetrator-victim narrative, the far-left accuses the Austrian political establishment and the media landscape across the board of ‘anti-Muslim racism’. The headscarf ban, which is primarily intended to protect underage girls from religious and family coercion, is branded a ‘racist law’ by the far left. By escalating the issue in this way, the party is defaming any attempt to uphold values such as equality and secular education in the face of religious fundamentalism.
The online campaign marks the start of further mobilisations within left-wing circles. On October 8, the group is inviting people to its club premises on the Rechten Wienzeile to rant about racism, which they claim is deeply entrenched in the state. This campaign highlights once again the creeping erosion of boundaries amongst sections of the Viennese left, who, out of sheer hatred for the bourgeois order, no longer even shy away from aligning themselves with the most reactionary forces of political Islam.