Terror in the heart of Vienna

The recent Islamist terrorist attack in Vienna shows that no country is spared. The EU must take more decisive action against political Islam.

It is called "Bermuda Triangle": The nightlife district in downtown Vienna was well attended last Monday evening. Many people wanted to party in the cafés and bars at mild temperatures, because at midnight a month-long lockdown was to begin due to the sharp rise in corona infections throughout Austria.

But at 8 pm the terror began. A 20-year-old man shot indiscriminately at passers-by and guests in pubs with an assault rifle. The main synagogue in the nightlife district was luckily already closed.

The police acted quickly. Only nine minutes after the first emergency call, security forces shot the killer. His blood trail ran through a part of the city center. Balance of the night of horror: Four dead, over 20 injured, many of them seriously. 

The perpetrator was a native of Lower Austria with Albanian parents who had moved here from Northern Macedonia. Before the crime, he posted a photo of himself with a rifle and machete on Instagram, along with an oath for the Islamic State (IS).

K.F. had two citizenships. He was known to the authorities since he traveled to Turkey in 2018 to fight for the "Islamic State" in Syria. But the Turkish authorities arrested him and later sent him back to Vienna. Here he was sentenced to 22 months in prison. Last December he was released early and assigned to a deradicalization program. He obediently kept all appointments and remained inconspicuous. But - as just now became known - he went to Slovakia last July with a friend to buy ammunition for his Serbian assault rifle. Since he could not present a gun ownership card, he was turned away. 

Shortly afterwards, security services of Slovakia informed their Austrian colleagues. But the terrorism-fighters  did not act and missed effective surveillance. Actually, F. should have been sent back to prison because he had violated parole conditions.

After the Islamist attacks in Germany and France, terror now came back to Austria, which was spared for a long time. The last major attacks took place in the eighties: Members of Abu Nidal's PLO splinter group shot at passers-by near Vienna's main synagogue and later also at passengers at Vienna airport while checking in for Israel. Several fatalities were the result.

Later, Austria became a recruiting ground for radical islamists. There are now 700,000 muslims living in Austria, making up 8 percent of the total population. According to one study a third of them show sympathies for fundamentalist ideas. Vienna is home to 300,000 Muslims, most of them immigrants from Turkey, Bosnia and, since 2015, from Syria as a result of the wave of refugees. 330 persons are registered as jihadists who fought or tried to fight for the IS, a large number for a smaller country. 

In the Danube Monarchy Austria-Hungary, Islam was first in Europe recognized as a religion with equal rights as early as 1908 due to the annexation of Bosnia from the Ottoman empire. To this day, muslims in Austria are entitled to Islamic religious instruction, including pastoral care in the army. But only recently the military imam was fired for exchanging radical messages in social services. Fundamentalist preachers immigrated from Bosnia, who were allowed to work undisturbed for a long time.

Moreover, Austria’s official Islamic religious authority was characterized by fundamentalist followers. One leading official was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and one responsible for selecting religious teachers was the Austrian representative of the extremist organization "Hisbut-Tahrir", which wants to establish a caliphate. 

The commissioner for the control of religious education, who is paid by the Ministry of Education, proudly announced that he had never inspected a class because he knew all the Islamic teachers of religion personally.

It was today's Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the governing conservative party ÖVP who, as State Secretary for Integration, enforced stricter laws in 2015. Thus, Islamic preachers may no longer be paid from abroad. A ban on headscarves in primary schools was introduced. A radical mosque in Vienna was closed.

But the parallel society remained unaffected. Only a few days after the assault in Nice, 50 young people with Turkish roots stormed a church in Vienna. Calling Alahu Akhbar they kicked wooden benches and confessionals. On the night of terror in Vienna, however, two youths of Turkish origin were celebrated as heroes because they carried a seriously injured policeman to the ambulance from the danger zone in the middle of the shootout.

But dangers continue to threaten from the radical minority: many of the convicted jihadists are soon to end their prison sentences. There are still not enough personnel and budget for deradicalization measures. Therefore, further terrorist attacks in Austria cannot be ruled out.

The EU, too, must concentrate on the fight against terrorism much more than it has done so far. For the attacks on our fundamental values, including the separation of church and state and media freedom, are on the rise. Little known are the activities of the EU Anti-terror representative, Gilles de Kerchove. Many of the 30 million muslims in the EU place Sharia law above our judicial system and reject equality of gender and equal rights for LGTB-people. Some local politicians with islamic background reject liberal basic attitudes and integration measures.

It is clear that political Islam is becoming stronger in Europe. The EU Commission plans to present its "EU Anti-Terror Agenda" before the end of this year. This will include measures to protect public places from attacks. Terrorist messages on the Internet should be deleted more quickly than before. 

None of this will be enough. Of course, the member states must first cooperate more closely in the defense against terrorism. It should be legal that convicted djihadists are surveilled including their phones and internet-communication.

French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear on twitter right after the attack in Vienna:  „After France, it is now a befriended country that is being attacked. This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give in.“

Otmar Lahodynsky is International President of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) and former European editor of Profil