Austria plans to shut down mosques, expel foreign-funded imams
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Austria's right-wing government plans to shut down seven mosques and expel up to 40 imams in what it said was "just the beginning" of a push against Islamist ideology and foreign funding of religious groups.
The coalition government, an alliance of conservatives and the far right, came to power soon after Europe's migration crisis on promises to prevent another influx and clamp down on benefits for new immigrants and refugees.
In a previous job as minister in charge of integration, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz oversaw the passing of a tough "law on Islam" in 2015, which banned foreign funding of religious groups and created a duty for Muslim societies to have "a positive fundamental view towards (Austria's) state and society".
"Political Islam's parallel societies and radicalising tendencies have no place in our country," Kurz told a news conference outlining the government's decisions, which were based on that law.
