Hintergrund 44

Description

In the Lower Austrian health resort Bad Vöslau a mosque was opened these days, only the third such building in Austria. The polemics in the run-up to the opening (as was already the case with the so-called minaret controversy in Telfs) lacked objective discussion of an increasingly important construction task. While numerous mosques are currently being built or planned in Germany, Austria is lagging behind the overall European development. In the heated debates, which quickly degenerate into xenophobia, it is usually overlooked that Muslims also prefer worthy assembly rooms for their prayers instead of backyards or abandoned industrial halls. A basic problem is that quickly formed groups of concerned neighbors can unfortunately be all too easily appropriated by the right, as the “Austrian Citizens’ Initiative Dammstrasse against the construction of mosques in residential areas” shows. An already existing mosque in Vienna-Brigittenau is to be enlarged. The allegedly non-partisan group of neighbors installs a homepage with the title “Mosque goodbye” and has the Viennese FPÖ member of parliament H. C. Strache march in the front line of its protest marches. The FPÖ was also heavily involved in Vöslau. You can read here which path the committed mayor chose.