7 October 2010 “My dialect gives me away,” says Sara Rahman smiling, “I’m from Upper Austria.” Rahman, a practicing Muslim who wears a hijab, is 29th on the electoral list for the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), a Christian democratic political party. For Rahman there is no contradiction between being Muslim and being part of a…
3 October 2010 Both the Social Democratic Part of Austria (SPÖ) as well as the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), the two largest political parties of the country, have included conservative headscarf-wearing women on their electoral lists for the upcoming Viennese elections. In both cases the women are so far down on the list that they…
14 September 2010 Following his earlier statements calling for exclusively German-speaking imams in Austria, the leader of the youth division of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), Sebastian Kurz, is now saying that only individuals with an Austrian background be allowed to preach in Austrian mosques. Kurz criticized that too many imams are trained in Turkey,…
Austrian President Heinz Fischer said he strongly believed Austria will always be home for multicultural, multi-faith and multi-ethnic co-existence and a model for tolerance, love and harmony among all citizens who follow Islam, Christianity and other faiths of the world. “Austria will however remain a European country leading openness and dialogue among representatives of the…
