Austria: Muslim leader calls for more mosques with minarets

Austria: Muslim leader calls for more mosques with minarets

(Vienna Mosque, Wikipedia)


Via Washington Times:

A call for more mosques with minarets in Austria gave rise Sunday to heated criticism from right-wing politicians, some going as far as demanding a ban on all immigrants from Muslim countries.

In an interview with the Austria Press Agency published Sunday, the head of the country's Islamic community, Anas Shakfeh, said he wished to see a mosque with a minaret in each of Austria's nine provincial capitals.

"That's my hope for the future," he said. "In the long term, one cannot prevent people from exercising their true religious freedom, which is protected by the constitution."

Austria's two right-wing parties immediately reacted, with the main Freedom Party describing mosques as "hotbeds for radical Islam" and calling for an "immigration ban on people from Islamic countries."

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