No Mosque yet: A Divided Community is the Problem

March 25, 2014   It is an uphill struggle for the Muslim community to build a place of worship in Milan, many hoped it would ready for Expo 2015, instead the building has been delayed. According to Paolo Branca, advocate and Associate Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, the real problem, rather than the…

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New Turkish Movie Sparks Interreligious Controversy

3 February 2010 The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has called on the chancellors of both Austria and Germany to prohibit the new Turkish film, “Valley of the Wolves: Palestine,” characterizing it an “immediate danger to Muslim-Jewish relations.” Originally a popular Turkish TV series which has since been made into a number of movies, this latest one…

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Austria’s Media Tend towards Islamophobia

26 October 2010 Islam often shows up in the headlines in Austrian newspapers, though rarely in a positive light. According to Professor Farid Hafez at the University of Vienna, the debate surrounding a statement made by the president of the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGiÖ) Anas Schakfeh is symptomatic of the problem. Schakfeh had…

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Austria Religious Communities Close Ranks in Support of Children’s Rights

21 October 2010 The representatives of Austria’s large religious communities – Catholic, Evangelical-Lutheran, Orthodox, Islamic, and Jewish – have come out in support of the initiative “Against Injustice.” The initiative opposes the practice of taking underage asylum seekers into custody, especially before expelling them from the country. The head of the Shura Council of the…

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We Need More Moderate Muslims in Politics

13 October 2010 Following the success of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the recent Viennese elections, Erich Kocina calls on Austrian Muslims to become more involved in Austrian politics. Nonetheless, he warns that this participation must not be seen as encouraging Turkish or Muslim individuals to represent exclusively Turkish or Muslim interests,…

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