Austria: Prison imam agitates against counterjihad measures

The Bosnian prison imam Džemal Šibljaković looks after Muslim prisoners. One would wish that he would take action against extremism. But sometimes he seems to locate the extremism more with the authorities than with the accused.

Džemal Šibljaković (born in 1991) is a prison chaplain of the Islamic Faith Community and thus the first full-time Islamic chaplain in prison. He looks after more than 550 Muslim prisoners in Vienna and Korneuburg. This obviously does not stop him from attacking the investigations currently underway against more than a hundred accused of terrorism and even placing them in a racist context – as it seems, also in front of prisoners. This is suggested by documents obtained by eXXpress. Enquiries to Šibljaković have so far remained unanswered.

Particularly striking: Šibljaković is an employee of the TURN association. A member of the TURN team is also in the focus of the investigators: He was one of the 30 people whose houses were searched at the beginning of November as part of “Operation Luxor” on suspicion of terrorism.

The investigations, whom Šibljaković also criticizes, are directed against suspected Muslim Brotherhood members and Hamas supporters – for money laundering, financing terrorism and membership in a terrorist organization. At the beginning of November, house searches were therefore carried out in a total of 60 flats and houses.

Šibljaković has repeatedly criticized Austria’s actions against political Islam, to which the Muslim Brotherhood belongs, for example on his Facebook account, where he warns “of a criminalization of Muslim citizens.” A video meeting from March 22, 2021, to which the “Documentation and Counseling Center on Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Racism invited several people, among them Šibljaković, provides at least an insight into how he exchanges views with prison inmates.

Operation Luxor” and the anti-terror package were the subject of the meeting. The tenor: Operation Luxor and the anti-terror package are both Islamophobic and racist measures. Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor its Palestinian branch, Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization, were criticized. Šibljaković spoke about his work with prisoners.

In an audio file in possession of eXXpress, Džemal Šibljaković explains, after first talking about youth work: “What has basically come from the inmates’ side, if I can say it in general terms, is simply the concern that something like this has become possible, that an action like Operation Luxor has become possible, so to speak.”

Šibljaković mentions this concern in the same breath as the “fear of these ‘quick-fire’ laws” that is supposedly spreading among the prisoners. And then the fear, to what extent will this affect my whole life afterwards, especially if you are in a prison context where you feel powerless anyway, where powerlessness is a very, very big part of your whole life, where almost every part of your life is controlled by others, such a message comes upon you more strongly perceptible.”

Afterwards, Šibljaković tells the prisoners how one can take action against such proposed laws, and thus also be successful at the Constitutional Court. He does not deny the accusation of racism that he has made. It is a serious question: Is Džemal Šibljaković using his contact with prison inmates to oppose Operation Luxor, which he opposes, and the government’s anti-terror measures?

Šibljaković comes from Bosnia, studied religious education and has a master’s degree in social work. People from his environment who knew Šibljaković only a few years ago tell eXXpress that he has a pronounced Salafist attitude. Publicly available information proves that Šibljaković at least has dealings with Salafists. Šibljaković’s current position on Salafism and on some particularly well-known representatives of Salafism is not known to eXXpress, as enquiries have so far remained unanswered.

At least seven people took part in the Zoom meeting, including Bernhard Gläser from the probation service “NEUSTART”. The association initiated the “Kompass” project together with the Ministry of the Interior to help those who want to voluntarily leave an extremist scene and ideology. Gläser has a leading function in this. Gläser’s attitude to the authorities’ investigations would also be of interest. After all, he runs “Kompass” together with the Ministry of the Interior.

The sharp criticism of “Operation Luxor” as allegedly racist is ultimately directed primarily against the public prosecutor’s office in Graz, which had also ordered the house searches, and against the Ministry of the Interior. The government was not involved – as is usually the case with house searches.