Austria: Muslim cleric preaches that it’s wrong to portray Islam as a religion of peace

All those non-Muslim imams such as Pope Francis and John Kerry who have so confidently assured us of the contrary should make their way to Linz and explain to this fellow how he is misunderstanding the religion he has dedicated his life to understanding.

“Jihadist trial: Islam expert took sermons apart,” translated from “Jihadisten-Prozess: Islam-Experte nahm Predigten auseinander,” Nachrichten, May 5, 2021 (thanks to Medforth):

LINZ. The lectures of the accused preacher are “not to be regarded as part of binding Islamic teaching,” said the expert. The accused protested verbatim.

In the Linz jihadist trial, in which three men are sitting in the dock for the crime of subversive association, Ednan Aslan, professor of Islamic religious education at the University of Vienna, spoke as an expert on Wednesday.

He examined a total of four of the numerous sermons for Friday prayers in the Linz Association. He analyzed them according to whether they represented a recruitment of fighters for jihad in Syria, “supported the Islamic State,” and were directed against the Republic of Austria.

His interpretation of the content presented in the sermons, which was based on the Koran: The law of God is to be enforced. All who opposed it were enemies and were to be fought against. Anger is also a characteristic of God. To portray Islam as a religion of peace is wrong. It is an offensive religion. Military action should be taken against its enemies and fear and terror should be spread among them.

The enemies would only wait for weaknesses of the Muslims. They themselves are responsible if they do not live the true faith. According to the expert report, the accused also criticized those leaders who were traitors and deceivers and who, for example, allow women to be unveiled. He directed an urgent warning to the Muslim listeners against affection for non-believers, even if they showed good will, as well as against Christians and Jews. Westernization has corrupted these people through alcohol, homosexuality, sexual relationships with animals and women who are made to work. An explicit distancing from democracy and the secular constitutional state in Austria had not been pronounced, but could be deduced. An unambiguous direct recruitment to participate in jihad or a specific call to terror could not be inferred from the lectures.

The preacher did not name Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, but praised a man who sacrificed his enormous fortune and life for Islam. The defendant has rejected the criticism of the Islamist militia Boko Haram in Nigeria. Their hostage-taking is legitimate as a prerequisite for an exchange of prisoners.

Overall, it was a radical Islamist ideology, was the assessment of the expert. The preacher internalized it and wanted to bring it to fruition. This is “not to be seen as part of the binding Islamic teaching” and also does not correspond to the attitude of the Islamic Faith Community in Austria (IGGÖ), Aslan emphasized.

The preacher’s defense lawyer asked the expert whether four lectures by many of his clients would be sufficient for an overall assessment and pointed out that essential allegations of anti-state sentiments mentioned in the indictment had not been specifically expressed. Then the defendant took the stand. In it and in questions to the expert he explained his interpretation of the sermons. The presiding judge had to slow him down several times because he spoke too quickly for the minutes. He also stated again that this was not a hearing on Islamic issues.