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Austria Scraps Controversial Online Map of Muslim Organizations Amid Backlash
Sunday 6 June 2021, by
The Austrian authorities have finally withdrawn the digital "Islam Landkarte (Islamic map)". This decision follows the wave of criticism poured on the government, particularly Chancellor Kurz who has repeatedly denounced what he calls "political Islam".
These criticisms come from Islamic groups, after the government proceeded to launch a website set up by the "Documentation Center for Political Islam", which makes available the names and locations of more than 620 mosques, associations and Muslim leaders. In a statement, Adnan Aslan of the University of Vienna, who supervised the development of this document, expressed his dismay at the controversy sparked by the project, as well as the abuse of it by some far-right groups.
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However, he failed to specify whether the withdrawal of this map is final or if it will return in another form. And the Austrian Minister of Integration, Susanne Raab, declared that the map whose "purpose was to combat political ideologies, not religion", was not intended to "generally doubt Muslims".
At the end of May, the Islamic Religious Community of Austria (IGGOE) had already announced its intention to file a complaint against the Kurz government, for the publication of this map, warning against "the stigmatization of all Muslims living in Austria, as a potential danger to society and the legal and democratic system of the country".