| Islamophobia Confident Austria Muslims |
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| Tuesday, 15 January 2008 18:44 | |||
 Austrian Muslim leaders have taken into their strides offensive anti-Islam remarks made by a member of a right-wing party, saying such "third-class" politicians do not deserve even their jeers.
The astute Muslim reaction came after Susanne Winter, an MP for the right-wing Freedom Party (FP?), described Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as a "child molester" who wrote the Qur'an "during epileptic fits." Speaking at a rally for the upcoming municipal council elections in the southern city of Graz, the rightist politician said that Islam should be "thrown back where it came from, beyond the Mediterranean Sea." Baghajati said the FP? politicians are just "are getting ever more provocative and disrespectful." The FP? is notorious for its repetitive vile attacks on Islam and Muslims in the country. During last year's parliamentary polls, the party circulated pamphlets that dismissed Islam as a threat to the Christian identity of Austria. Austrian Muslims are estimated at 400,000, or nearly 4 percent of the European country's 8 million population. Last year, Austria Muslims have championed a nation-wide campaign to introduce the Prophet and his teachings to their fellow countrymen. The campaign echoed others launched by Muslims Europe-wide in response to the sacrilegious Danish cartoons that lampooned the Prophet in 2005. Probe Austrian authorities have opened a probe into Winter's remarks. "We're investigating the suspicion of incitement to racial hatred," said Manfred Kammerer, spokesman for the public prosecutors' office in Graz. "Our attention was brought to the case by the media reports." Kammerer said that Winter would be questioned about her comments "in the next few days", after which it would be decided what steps should be taken. Winter stood by her provocative remarks Monday and rather warned of a "tsunami of Muslim immigration" that was threatening to engulf Western Europe in an interview with Oesterreich. Politicians and Christian clerics denounced in unison Winter's comments and called for her resignation. The deputy head of the Green Party, Eva Glawischnig, said that the remarks were "unprecedented religion-baiting". Omar Al-Rawi, a Muslim member of the Social Democrat SPOe party, condemned the lack of respect the FP? politician showed for Islam and its prophet. "The FP?'s Islam-bashing ... is stomach-turning," he told the daily Die Presse. The head of the Ecumenical Forum of Christian Churches, Hermann Miklas, added his condemnation. "We as Christians distance ourselves from such remarks, which are contemptuous of other religions," Miklas said.
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