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30. 12. 09. - 15:00

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30. 12. 09. - 15:00

Radical Muslims threaten women's minister

By David Rogers

A banned radical Islamic organisation has sent a threatening letter to Social Democratic (SPÖ) Women’s Minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek after she called for a ban on burkas, according to the Österreich newspaper.

The newspaper reported today (Weds) that the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation based in Lebanon had sent it a three-page email after Christmas in which it condemned the minister’s remarks last week and threatened her using the sentence from the Koran: "And know that Allah is strong in punishment."

The organisation’s Vienna spokesman Shaker Assem also called "on Austrian Muslims to cease supporting the SPÖ".

Österreich said it had handed the document to the Federal Crime Office (BK), adding that to date there had been no serious investigation of Islamic fundamentalists in Austria.

Hizb ut-Tahrir – which experts say is the first transnational organisation dominated by Palestinians calling for a caliphate or world-wide Islamic state - is considered dangerous and was banned in 2003 in Germany for its support of violence.

A spokesperson for Heinisch-Hosek said her ministry had been in contact with the Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism and was taking the matter very seriously.

Some Austrian media have reported that the Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism has had Hizb ut-Tahrir under observation.

In her comments in several interviews on 23 December, Heinisch-Hosek had said: "I consider the burka a sign of the submission of women. It greatly hinders women from finding jobs in the labour market. If more women wearing burkas appear in Austria, I will test a ban on them and enact administrative fines for women wearing them in public buildings."

She added that Islam was a danger to women’s rights when it led to "politically fundamentalist-oriented policies" such as the mandatory wearing of burkas.

Austrian Times

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