Austria’s Muslims fear changes to historic Islam law

On foreign funding of mosques in Austria:

The draft law has also been criticised by constitutional experts, who say that some of its provisions fail to treat Muslims equally.

Professor Stefan Hammer from the University of Vienna says, while it is legitimate for the government to try and prevent misuse of donations from abroad, a blanket ban on foreign funding for the Islamic Community is constitutionally very problematic.

“Financing of religious communities is part of their internal affairs. This does not mean the state may not address any aspect of that, but it has to be proportional,” he says.

Other religious groups and churches receive external funding, notably the Russian Orthodox Church from Moscow, so differentiating between religions would clearly be excessive, he believes.

“It would be a clear breach of the principle of equal treatment.”Carla Amina Baghajati from the Islamic Community says the draft is infused with “a spirit of mistrust”, which she fears could play into the hands of the radicals.

“The radicals make use of the identity question, telling people: Look at the European societies, you wont ever be on the same level, you will always be an outsider. They wont accept you, so come and join us.

“This is very dangerous. We have to help young people to find their identity and the law is one of the important pieces in this identity building. It has helped in the past and we want it to help in the future.”

Seems like the solution could be a ban on any foreign funding for any religion to address the equal treatment issue.

BBC News – Austrias Muslims fear changes to historic Islam law.