Austria Drafts Constitutional Ban on Political Islam

The Government of Austria has begun drafting a proposal to constitutionally ban political Islam, an ideology Chancellor Christian Stocker describes as incompatible with democracy and Western values. Integration and Europe Minister Claudia Bauer is currently preparing the proposal for the government's coalition partners, including the Social Democratic Party of Austria and NEOS.

Stocker argues that while religious freedom is protected, it ends where state institutions and courts are not respected or where equal rights for men and women are denied. He specifically highlighted concerns regarding the influence of preachers over Parliament and the presence of morality police in schools. To support his position, Stocker noted that students with an Islamic religious affiliation now represent a relative majority of 41.2% in Vienna's primary and middle schools.

The initiative follows warnings from the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence regarding the Muslim Brotherhood. The agency alleges the group seeks to establish a Caliphate or Sharia law in the West and may have infiltrated the DERAD deradicalisation network. The Documentation Center for Political Islam, a government-established research center, further defines political Islam as an ideology of supremacy.