Dozens of foreign-funded radical imams and seven mosques are on the chopping block in Austria, according to an announcement by Chancellor Sebatian Kurz on Friday.
The decision was made after children were photographed at a Turkish-funded mosque playing dead, saluting Turkish flags and re-enacting the Battle of Gallipoli, the only major battle won by the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and the basis of the Turkish War of Independence.
In addition, 60 imams employed by the Turkish-Islamic Cultural Association will have their residency permits revoked.
“Parallel societies, political Islam and radicalization have no place in our country,” said Kurz, who was just on a three-day visit to Israel that included visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem.
Approximately 600,000 Muslims, most of them Turks or of Turkish descent, live in Austria, home to 8.8 million people.
