Europe, Under Islamist Threat, Forced on Its Back-Foot

"We must be able to discuss topics such as freedom of expression in our classrooms without any outside pressure."

"It may hurt when someone has an opinion that conflicts with your world view or religious conviction, but they have a right to say so in all liberty."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

 

"We are ready to accept every Tunisian, but with conditions preserving the dignity and giving him rights to access to all stages of judicial appeals in France before the deportation [in discussions of security matters between France and Tunisia; the deportation of dozens of Tunisian migrants]."

Tunisian Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine

Muslim demonstrators hold placards during a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in Charlie Hebdo in London (photo credit: REUTERS)

Police in Germany Friday announced raids they had carried out on the homes and offices of four individuals they had linked to the 20-year-old man who launched an attack in Austria. German intelligence had sent a request to Austria to have them monitor several Germans who had met with Kujtim Fejzulai, the Islamist attacker shot dead after he killed four people and wounded over 20 others after opening fire in the central nightlife district of Vienna on Monday night.

The Germans had visited Austria this summer and their contacts had been monitored by German intelligence. Austrian authorities made no move to alter their risk assessment of Fejzulal, on early release from prison with a 22-month sentence for attempting to join the Islamic State, but turned back to France by Turkish authorities. Enrolled in a deradicalization course in prison, he was considered to have been effectively deradicalized, earning himself early release.

Police searches near Hamburg in homes and business premises.

 

According to Austria's Interior Minister Nehammer, "immediate personnel consequences" had resulted over the botched heads-up over Fejzulai when Erich Zwettier, head of the local intelligence office in Vienna had resigned. Mr. Nehammer admitted to "intolerable mistakes" in tracking the suspect prior to his deadly shooting spree. As a result of which he ordered the closing of mosques Austrian intelligence now deems a security risk.

Fejzulai, born in Vienna, held a North Macedonian passport; his parents had emigrated from Macedonia to Austria, accounting for the North Macedonian passport in Fejzulai's possession, as well as an Austrian passport. He had planned the attack in the knowledge that residents of Vienna would be out enjoying the last hours before the onset of a new coronavirus lockdown and curfew. His coordinated actions as he carried an automatic rifle, handgun and knife took him to six discrete sites in a matter of eight minutes where he killed four people and injured others, before he was himself shot dead nine minutes after he began his deadly spree.

Austria's security services have come under close scrutiny, particularly as it emerged on Thursday that Austrian authorities had been warned by their Slovakian counterparts in July of Fejzulai's attempts to acquire ammunition there, for an assault rifle; a "communication" problem accounted for the lack of action on Austria's part, according to Minister Nehammer. A mosque and an Islamic centre that Fejzulai was known to frequent were closed on Friday, with Integration Minister Suzanne Raab stating that institutions which are "hotbeds for the blind hatred and violence we experience(d) on Monday" are slated for closure.

Last month, an assailant who shouted "Allahu akbar!" as he beheaded a woman and attacked and killed two other people with a knife in a church in Nice placed France on high alert. A 21-year-old Tunisian had arrived by ship to Lampedusa, a popular Italian island entry point to Europe for migrants from Africa. He was ordered to return to Tunisia but made his way to Nice instead, where he planned for and carried out his deadly attack.

 

People hold a photo of the history teacher Samuel Paty , who was beheaded last week, during a memorial march in homage to him, Tuesday, Oct.20, 2020 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

 

This followed the beheading murder of French middle-school teacher Samuel Paty who had received threats from some of the parents of his students after he made use of a Charlie Hebdo satirical cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad, in a civics class on French values and freedom of speech. His murderer, a man of Chechen origins living in France, had set out to avenge the prophet after a video produced by a Muslim parent circulated within the Muslim community, identifying the teacher and his school.

Now, in the Netherlands a Rotterdam teacher has been forced into hiding as a result of a classroom discussion of the killing of Samuel Paty. Police arrested a female teen on suspicion of inciting threats against the Dutch teacher. Messages were posted on social media, though it was unclear whether the 18-year-old was a student at the Emmauscollege high school where the class debate occurred. Dutch Prime Minister Rutte spoke of the threats as "absurd" and "intolerable". 

 

Two 18-year-old men and a 17-year-old girl were charged Friday with "criminal terrorist conspiracy" in the murder of French history teacher Samuel Paty, a judicial source told news agency AFP.

 

That class discussion took place as a result of schools in the Netherlands, France and Germany being requested to hold a moment of silence for Paty whose death in October shocked the world community. On Monday, during a classroom discussion at the Emmauscollege, students had taken note of a bulletin board-posted cartoon that had been in place for years. Among the students, some took offence at its presence, a cartoon that won a national prize in 2015, showing a decapitated figure labelled "Charlie Hebdo" sticking out its tongue at a bearded man with a bloody sword.

 

Soon afterward a photo of the cartoon began circulating on social media, and by Tuesday the teacher who led the discussion began receiving threats, compelling him to go into hiding even as police became involved. That same day a school in a Paris suburb was reported by Le Monde as having received threats against another teacher, leading to the school being closed.

The Tewhid mosque in Vienna | Georg Hochmuth/AFP via Getty Images

The Enemies Within

"Before the terror attack began, according to the information currently available, some things also went wrong."

"In the next steps evidently something went wrong here with communications."

"It's up to the commission to clarify whether the process went optimally and in line with the law."

"[Austria is working] intensively [with the FBI and has received] very significant information [from the U.S. agency]."

Austria Interior Minister Karl Nehammer

 

"We don't know yet if the terrorist had supporters."

"[I urge the European Union to] focus much more strongly on the problem of political Islam in the future."

"I hope we will see an end to this misunderstood tolerance and that all countries in Europe will finally realize how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life."

"We will find and hunt down the perpetrators, those behind this and their associates and mete out a just sentence. And we will pursue all those who have anything to do with this outrage, with all available means."

"This is not a conflict between Christians and Muslims or between Austrians and migrants. No, this is a fight between the many people who believe in peace and the few [who oppose it]. It is a fight between civilization and barbarism."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastien Kurz

( Christian Bruna/EPA )

 Austrian intelligence services have gone through large numbers of cellphone footage helping to confirm that the rampage in Vienna on Monday was perpetrated by a sole jihadist, a man known to police, a man convicted of being an accessory to terrorism, a man returned to Austria by Turkish authorities who had detailed and arrested him when he attempted at the age of 18 to pass through into Syria to join the Islamic State.

 

That man, 20-year-old Vienna-born Kujtim Fejzulai -- whose parents were from Macedonia and who himself held dual citizenship in both Macedonia and Austria -- was sent to prison and while there underwent a deradicalization program operated by a local Muslim group. He had cleverly evinced all the suitable reactions to convince everyone involved, from the program, from the prison, from the adjudicators, that he was fully deradicalized and ready to rejoin society, which led to his early release last year.

 

Mourners placed candles at the site of one of the attacks on Wednesday  Reuters

In the interim period between his release from prison and his attack in central Austria, the man attempted to buy weapons and ammunition. Although Austria manufactures weapons, its citizens must have a very good reason for wanting to acquire one, constrained to go through very strict rules and regulations, and this young man simply failed to qualify. But acquire the weapons he did, both an assault rifle, a handgun and a machete. In the space of a spare eight minutes he moved expeditiously to six disparate areas, constantly shooting, constantly shouting "Allahu Akbar!"

 

Back in June, Austria's neighbour Slovakia had contacted authorities in Austria with a heads-up. Their intelligence service handed over information linked to the attacker who had attempted and ultimately failed to acquire ammunition there. Slovakia did its due diligence as a responsible neighbour, but Austria somehow managed to misfile the information and forget about it. Now, after the tragedy of four people dead and 22 injured, three seriously, Austria is launching an investigation into the matter.

 

The gunman meant business and went about slaughtering people in a businesslike, clockwork manner. It took a frenetic eight minutes for him to accomplish his goal before he was killed, before he was able to spend longer than a mere eight minutes to reap a horrific harvest of dead Austrians. He killed an elderly man and woman, a young passerby and a waitress. He had chosen that venue, that night, before a universal lockdown for COVID control when bars, hotels and restaurants would be closed the following day and curfew began.

 

The centre of Vienna began returning to normal on Wednesday but security was still high   Reuters

"He was released early exactly because he gave the impression that he had engaged with [the] deradicalization programs and was prepared to integrate himself into society", explained Interior Minister Nehammer. Just prior to the attack, Fejzulai posted a photograph showing himself with weapons, where anyone could access the social media account where he made his declaration of intent. It is still not confidently known whether he had accomplices.

 

But 14 people between the ages of 18 and 28 were arrested on Tuesday and are being investigated on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization. Those arrested all have what has been termed a "migration background", some of them dual citizens of Bangladesh, North Macedonia, Turkey or Russia. They entered Austria amongst a general rush of tens of thousands of people claiming refugee status and clearly, among them were jihadists. 

 

Austria has been involved in the U.S.led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and has considered itself susceptible to potential jihadist attacks as its foremost security threat. It is aware of the danger of former fighters returning from Iraq or Syria. Authorities are aware that 320 residents of Austria were actively involved or had participated in some way in jihad in Syria and Iraq. 

 

Of that total some 58 were considered to have been killed in the region, while a known 93 returned to Austria. Some never left, but nurtured their jihadist aspirations from within. This man was simply one of them though he certainly did make the attempt to fight from without, within the active ranks of Islamic State jihadis. In the interests of the cause, he did the best he could. And ISIL is now proudly taking credit.

Police officers patrol through the city in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

A Repulsive Terrorist Attack

"During the last 24 hours, we arrested 14 people,. Now we will find out in the next days if he is part of a broader network or not."

"What we know is that he is a supporter of the Islamic State."

"We all know in our country this is not a fight between Christians or Muslims or Austrians and people from other countries."

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz

 

"We have brought several special forces units together that are now searching for the presumed terrorists."

"I am therefore not limiting it to an area of Vienna because these are mobile perpetrators."

"[Several] heavily armed and dangerous [attackers are still on the loose with large parts of central Vienna shut down and sealed off in a manhunt]."

Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer

Police cars and ambulances in central Vienna on Monday night.

"We are living in the compound of the synagogue. Upon hearing shots we looked down [from] the windows and saw the gunmen shooting at the guests of the various bars and pubs."

"The gunmen were running around and shooting at least 100 rounds or even more in front of our building."

Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, Stadttempel synagogue

 

"I was cleaning up and suddenly I heard shots. A lot of them, from a machine gun. I looked outside, someone ran past and probably shot someone in front of the synagogue."

"He was wearing a white jogging suit or something similar and he kept shooting."

Owner of a restaurant on the Seitenstettengasse, close to the synagogue

Screengrabs of footage appearing on various social media sites showing terrorist attack in Vienna, Nov. 2, 2020. Photo by Screengrab

The attack began at around 8:00 p.m. local time in a central area of Vienna, the Austrian capital. The country  prepared to go back into lockdown, and this night before lockdown, people were out in droves at local bars, hotels and restaurants on the street, in close proximity to the city's central synagogue. It was immediately assumed that the synagogue was the initial target. It might have been, no one can now interrogate the sole attacker, he is dead, one of five who died last night, the four others victims of Fejzulai Kujtim, a 20-year-old Austrian man from the town of St. Poelten, 33 miles west of Vienna. 

 

Immediately the attack began, bedlam prevailed. Six discrete sites were declared to be under attack, each by different gunmen, professionally organized and equipped with high-powered rifles, shooting at random, shouting out 'Allahu Akbar!' as they consigned total strangers to death in their mission to shock and terrorize, and likely avenge the Prophet Mohammad whose image had been mocked in neighbouring France, where two deadly knife attacks had just taken place in the past several weeks stemming from a French teacher using Mohammad cartoons illustratively in a middle-school class on civics and freedom of speech.

 

As the evening wore on it was assumed that the attacker, by then shot dead by police, had an accomplice, perhaps more than one, and whoever they were, they were escaping, armed and dangerous.  Police urged the population to remain indoors, sheltered, that danger stalked anyone unaware and vulnerable out in the open. Borders were closed, a massive search was launched for the co-perpetrator or perpetrators, the henchmen who had been involved in the murder spree alongside Fejzulai Kujtim.

 

Until, finally, it was determined that in all likelihood he had acted alone in a powerful frenzy of religiou-inspired fervour. There was no one else. He also happened to be a convicted felon, imprisoned on a charge of terrorism, he had attempted to leave Austria for Syria to join the Islamic State. While in prison he had undergone deradicalization training and was deemed by authorities to have passed with flying colours, earning him an early release from detention. Presumably, Austrian security is too man-short keeping tabs on its identified extremists to fully cover them all and obviously Eajzulai Kujtim, as a public threat, was overlooked.

 

He had succeeded in wounding another 15 people, among them a police officer, with seven of the total wounded remaining hospitalized in critical condition.Not that the manhunt for possible Islamist collaborators is over; thus far 14 people have been investigated as possible conspirators with the attacker, and are in custody while their suspected links to the atrocity are being probed. The witnesses too were convinced that a number of attackers were involved, steering their excited narratives.

 

Armed police stay in position at the scene of the attack in the Austrian capital.

 

 

Last night the Vienna police tweeted an alert to the general public: "There are several injured persons. We are on site with all available forces. Please avoid all public squares in the city". The army, assured Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, would see to the protection of vulnerable capital sites leaving the police to focus on anti-terror operations. Today is another day. There have been other revelations, chief among them that this was a sole-actor terrorist event. There was but one active shooter. A man with Macedonian-Austrian citizenship, although he was born in Austria.

An empathetic and terrorism-seasoned French President Emmanuel Macron gave his full and unstinting support to Austria; it is debatable whether the compliment had been initiated in reverse weeks earlier. "This is our Europe. Our enemies must know with whom they are dealing. We will not retreat", stated President Macron, of the destructive malevolence of the extremist Islamists harbouring in safety in progressive-minded Europe.

In Austria, as in the United States, private gun ownership is fairly high, though not in competition with U.S. numbers. Although Austria has of late not been the recipient of large-scale terrorist attacks such as Paris, Berlin and London have been vulnerable to in recent years, in August a 32-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested, suspected of trying to attack a Jewish community leader in Graz, one of Austria's larger cities. 

 

Armed police stand outside the Vienna State Opera amid a terrorist attack in the Austrian capital. Photograph: Michael Gruber/Getty Images 

 

 

 

"How about paying $400 a head to the Nazi regime? Too much? How about $200?"

Gangs of thugs in brown shirts owned the streets. They drove around in trucks, flashing their guns and their swastika armbands, hooting at the pretty girls. If they wanted to pick you up or beat you up, they did so with impunity. Anybody who resisted was beaten or killed or taken away to Dachau or Buchenwald or some other concentration camp. (You must understand that at that time, the concentration camps were prisons where opponents of the Nazi regime were detained . . . The inmates were made to work at hard labor and lived in dreadful conditions, but the words 'concentration camp' came to stand for monstrous cruelty and almost certain death. Nobody even imagined there would one day be a death camp like Auschwitz.)

Cheering crowds greet Hitler as he enters Vienna. Austria, March 1938.

— Wide World Photo

How can I describe to you our confusion and terror when the Nazis took over? We had lived until yesterday in a rational world. Now everyone around us -- our schoolmates, neighbours, and teachers; our tradesmen, policemen, and bureaucrats -- had all gone mad. They had been harboring a hatred for us which we had grown accustomed to calling 'prejudice'. What a gentle word that was! What a euphemism! In fact they hated us with a hatred as old as their religion; they were born hating us, raised hating us; and now with the Anschluss, the veneer of civilization which had protected us from their hatred was stripped away.

Jews in Vienna forced to scrub Schuschnigg's slogans off the sidewalk --
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

On the pavements, protesters had written anti-Nazi slogans. The SS grabbed Jews and forced them at gunpoint to scrub off the graffiti while crowds of Austrians stood around jeering and laughing.

The Nazi radio blamed us for every filthy evil thing in this world. The Nazis called us subhuman and, in the next breath, superhuman; accused us of plotting to murder them, to rob them blind; declared that they had to conquer the world to prevent us from conquering the world. The radio said that we must be dispossessed of all we owned; that my father, who had dropped dead while working, had not really worked for our pleasant flat -- the leather chairs in the dining room, the earrings in my mother's ears -- that he had somehow stolen them from Christian Austria, which now had every right to take them back.

Members of the League of German Girls wave Nazi flags in support of the German annexation of Austria. Vienna, Austria, March 1938.   — Dokumentationsarchiv des Oesterreichischen Widerstandes

Did our friends and our neighbors really believe this? Of course they didn't believe it. They were not stupid. But they had suffered depression, inflation, and joblessness. They wanted to be well-to-do again, and the fastest way to accomplish that was to steal. Cultivating a belief in the greed of the Jews gave them an excuse to steal everything the Jews possessed.

We sat in our flats, paralyzed with fear, waiting for the madness to end. Rational, charming, witty, dancing, generous Vienna must surely rebel against such insanity We waited and we waited and it didn't end and it didn't end and still we waited and we waited.

The restrictions against Jews spread into every corner of our lives. We couldn't go to movies or concerts. We couldn't walk on certain streets. The Nazis put up signs on Jewish shop windows warning the population not to buy there. Mimi was fired from her job at the dry cleaners because it had become illegal for Christians to employ Jews. Hansi was no longer allowed to go to school.

SS men supervise the confiscation of goods belonging to Jews deported from Vienna --
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Uncle Richard went to the cafe where he had been going for twenty years. It now had a Jewish side and an Aryan side, and he sat on the Jewish side. Because he had fair hair and didn't look Jewish, a waiter, who did not know him, said he had to move to the Aryan side. But on the Aryan side, a waiter who did know him said that he had to go back to the Jewish side. He finally gave up and went home.

Baron Louis de Rothschild, one of the wealthiest Jewish men in Vienna, tried to leave the city. The Nazis stopped him at the airport and put him in prison, and whatever they did to him there convinced him that he ought to sign over everything to the Nazi regime. Then they let him leave. The SS took over the Rothschild Palace on Prinz Eugenstrasse and renamed it the Center for Jewish Emigration.

Right after Grandmother died, the world held a conference at Evian-les-Bains, a luxurious spa in the French Alps near Lake Geneva, at which the fate of the Austrian Jews was up for discussion. Eichmann sent representatives of our community to plead with other countries to pay the Nazi ransom and take us in. "Don't you want to save the urbane, well-educated, fun-loving, cultured Jews of Austria?" they asked. "How about paying $400 a head to the Nazi regime? Too much? How about $200?"

They couldn't get a cent.

No country wanted to pay for our rescue, including the United States. The dictator of the Dominican Republic, Trujillo, took a few Jews, thinking they might help bring some prosperity to the tiny, impoverished country. I have heard that they did.

Transport list of Viennese Jews -- www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

From the NAZI Officer's WIFE -- Edith Hahn Beer, c.1999

Liberating the Austrian Spirit

"No one cared about us. It was trauma in the camp and afterward, too."
"I survived. And the others didn't."
"[At the camp there were 186 steps in 'the Stairway of Death', that slave laborers had to climb with blocks of granite on their backs ... when a Nazi guard asked who would like to rest, most said they would.] 'Well then, sit over there' [said the guard] and shot them. He said the inmate tried to escape the camp.. That happened umpteen times every day."
Aba Lewit, Mauthausen survivor

"[The years 1938 to 1945 represents] one of the most horrible chapters in our history. [We should] never forget and to elevate values such as tolerance, democracy, non-violence and solidarity."
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann

Entrance gate to the main compound at Mauthausen. Just inside the entrance gate is a courtyard where prisoner formations were sometimes held. The large iron eagle over the gate was removed immediately following the liberation.  (Museum KZ-Lager Mauthausen)

Mauthausen, the longest operating of the Nazi concentration camps in northern Austria was the last of the camps to be liberated. Dignitaries and delegations from Europe and beyond were present at the 70th anniversary of its liberation. There were over 20,000 people at the ceremony on Sunday; among them 50 survivors. The concentration camp welcomed its first railroad wagon of prisoners in 1938. At the time of its liberation and that of its almost 50 satellite camps in May of 1945, more than 100,000 people had perished there.

The main camp had a "Category III" designation, marking it out as a slave labour camp whose inmates would approach death through labour; starvation, privation, emaciation, disease and illness would all follow. Most who died there were Jews, but there were also conscientious objectors and political prisoners along with any opponents outspoken against German's Nazi regime. At the labour camp, planes and other military equipment were built.

The factories themselves were located in tunnels dug and deeply entrenched at the auxiliary camps. And then there was a huge granite pit, excavated as well, for the war effort. Where laborers worked 12-hour days, clambering the stairs which were uneven slabs up to a half metre high, carrying immensely heavy pieces of granite. Most people died of exhaustion, were shot or died after transfer to a barracks for the ill.

Where no medical care was available and epidemics swept through the inmates and killed them, a not difficult task for their weakened condition. On Sunday, at the ceremonies, cows could be seen grazing peacefully on nearby meadows, with tidy farmhouses in eyesight of the walls of Mauthausen. People going about their daily business in nearby villages. Just as they had during the war years. How were they to know Mauthausen was a death factory, after all?

Like most of the German population, most Austrians claimed never to have known about the camps or their purpose, let alone the vast death toll it accounted for. Public opinion had it that Austria was victimized by Hitler, certainly not that the country was a willing accomplice after its 1938 annexation, to Germany's unspeakable atrocities. Perhaps it made sense that Austrians took pride that Hitler, the ruler of the Third Reich, was an Austrian.

What fine and noble sentiments emitted from the mouth of the Austrian Chancellor. How ironic that the United Nations, transformed from the League of Nations after World War II, as a world body traumatized by the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust had as its fourth Secretary General from 1972 to 1981, Kurt Waldheim, a former member of the Hitlerian Nazis. When his Nazi past was revealed, Austria rose to his defence, their native son.

World Jewish Congress, via Associated Press

MAY 1943 Lt. Kurt Waldheim, second from left, serving with a German infantry division in Podgorica, in what was Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia.

His nobility as an Austrian was reflected in his elevation to President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992.

"Kurt Waldheim did not, in fact, order, incite or personally commit what is commonly called a war crime."
"But this non-guilt must not be confused with innocence. The fact that Waldheim played a significant role in military units that unquestionably committed war crimes makes him at the very least morally complicit in those crimes."
Professor Robert Edwin Herzstein, historian, University of South Carolina

Austria: Springboard for Global Jihad

by Soeren Kern
August 26, 2014 at 5:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4651/austria-jihad

Austria figures prominently in a map produced by the IS that outlines the group's five-year plan for expanding its caliphate into Europe, and has emerged as a central hub for jihadists seeking to fight in Syria.
"The spectrum of recruits for the conflict in Syria is ethnically diverse. The motivation, however, appears to be uniformly jihadist." — Austrian intelligence agency BVT.
"Allah also gives you the opportunity to wage jihad in Austria." — Austrian jihadist Firas Houidi.
"We are proud that Allah has chosen us. We feel like lions." — Austrian jihadist Abu Hamza al-Austria.

The Austrian government has announced plans to improve its intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities in an urgent effort to crack down on would-be jihadists in the country.

The decision by Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner to recruit 20 new intelligence officers to focus exclusively on the threat posed by radical Islam comes after police in Austria arrested nine Chechen immigrants who were on their way to wage jihad in Syria.

The move also comes amid growing concerns that Austria's shiftless Muslim youth are becoming increasingly radicalized and vocal in their support of the jihadist group Islamic State.

The Chechens—eight men and one woman, ranging in age from 17 to 32—were purportedly planning to travel to Syria over a land route that would take them from Austria through the neighboring Balkans and on into Turkey. Four of the individuals were arrested in the southeastern Austrian province of Styria, and five others were detained in the province of Carinthia. Both provinces border Slovenia.

According to an analysis published by the newspaper Der Standard, Austria has emerged as a central hub for jihadists seeking to fight in Syria because Austria's geographic location provides easy access to land routes through the Balkans.

Austrian intelligence officials say that most of the 130 Austrians who are thought to have travelled to Syria are Chechens. The rest are immigrants from Bosnia, Kosovo and Turkey. Approximately 60 Austrian jihadists are currently on the front lines, 50 have already returned to Austria and 20 have been killed in action.

The returning jihadists are "ticking time bombs," according to Mikl-Leitner. Her concerns are echoed in a June 2014 report by the Austrian intelligence agency BVT, which is emphatic about the threat posed by returning jihadists. The document states:

"When fighters return from the warzone, their newly acquired combat skills, traumatic experiences and changes in behavior, plus the possibility that they have become highly radicalized, represent a considerable security risk for Austria. Those who return could become involved in proselytizing activities as well as in establishing new radical centers in which they could serve as instructors. Potential terrorist attacks could be perpetrated by so-called lone wolves but also by organized terrorist groups."

The report also warns of the "exploding radicalization of the Salafist scene in Austria." Salafism is an anti-Western ideology that seeks to impose Islamic sharia law in Austria and other parts of Europe. The document states:

"The number of young radicalized followers of violent Salafism in Austria continues to rise. In this context, the conflict in Syria is of urgent relevance for Austria, because systematic efforts are being made within Austria to radicalize and recruit people for the war in Syria.
"The conflict in Syria has become very popular among violent extremist Salafists in Austria. The spectrum of recruits for the conflict in Syria is ethnically diverse. The motivation, however, appears to be uniformly jihadist.
"So-called hate preachers can have a decisive influence on the radicalization and recruiting processes by means of ideological and personal indoctrination. Jihad is offered as the only adequate means to solving disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims. In Austria, this targeted manipulation is achieved through conspiratorial performances by charismatic leaders. Young Muslims, who are seeking alternative perspectives due to life crises, are often submissive victims to these 'radicalizers' and 'recruiters' and are often fascinated by the prospect of armed jihad."

In any event, Salafism is on track to becoming a permanent fixture of Austrian society, if demographics are any indication. The Muslim population in Austria now exceeds 500,000 (or roughly 6% of the total population), up from an estimated 150,000 (or 2%) in 1990. The Muslim population is expected to reach 800,000 (or 9.5%) by 2030, according to recent estimates.

Muslim students already outnumber Roman Catholic students at middle and secondary schools in Vienna, the capital and largest city of Austria, according to statistics compiled by the Vienna Board of Education (Stadtschulrat für Wien) and published by Radio Vatican website in March 2014.

The data—which show that Muslim students are also on the verge of overtaking Catholics in Viennese elementary schools—reflect an established trend and provide empirical evidence of a massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country.

In the current school year, 10,734 Muslim students are enrolled in Viennese middle and secondary schools, compared to 8,632 Roman Catholic students, 4,259 Serbian Orthodox students and 3,219 students with "no religious persuasion," the data shows.

As far as elementary schools are concerned, there are 23,807 Roman Catholic students, followed by 17,913 Muslim students, 11,119 "non-religious" students, 6,083 Serbian Orthodox students and 2,322 Protestants.

The statistics show that the only Viennese schools where Muslims remain a distinct minority are in the gymnasium, advanced secondary schools that place a strong emphasis on academic learning rather than on vocational skills. Students graduating from a gymnasium are more likely than others to be admitted to attend university in Austria.

Official statistics also show that nearly 60% of the inhabitants of Vienna are immigrants or foreigners.

Meanwhile, Austrian jihadists are busy using social media to promote their cause, and to taunt counter-terrorism authorities. Before leaving for Syria in early 2014, a 19-year-old jihadist from Vienna named Firas Houidi wrote the following message on his Facebook page: "To the intelligence agent who may be reading this: Either you kill us or we continue, until the heads fly." In mid-August, Houidi, who goes by the nom de guerre Firas Abdullah II, sent a follow-up "greeting" from Syria that included a photograph of an artillery shell in a box ready to be shipped to Austrian authorities.

In another message, Houidi, who has a Tunisian immigrant background, wrote that it is not necessary for Austrian Muslims to travel all the way to Syria to wage jihad against infidels. "Even if you do not emigrate and fight, then do it in Austria," he wrote. "Allah also gives you the opportunity to wage jihad in Austria." After his Facebook page was suspended, he reportedly opened another one under the name "Firas Abdullah III."

Europol, the international police organization, has now issued an international arrest warrant for Houidi for belonging to a terrorist organization and for inciting to commit serious crimes.
Another so-called Austro-Islamist named "Abu Hamza al-Austria" produced an eight-minute recruitment video calling on Muslims to wage jihad. He can be heard saying: "My name is Abu Hamza. I lived in Vienna until Allah called me and I obeyed his call." He continues:

"My brothers and sisters. When I lived in Austria, I thought it would be difficult to leave because I was used to a life of luxury. I imagined that in Syria there would be no water, very little food and drink. This is not the case. We live in houses that exceed western expectations. We live in villas with fireplaces and swimming pools. We have everything here. We have no fear of death. We are proud that Allah has chosen us. We feel like lions."

The Islamist known as "Abu Hamza al-Austria," fighting in Syria, pictured from his jihadist recruitment video.

Austrian jihadists have also used social media to call on fellow Muslims to murder Yazidis, ethnic Kurdish non-Muslims, living in Austria. One image shows an Austro-Islamist brandishing a knife accompanied by a quote from the Prophet Mohammed: "We have come to you for no other purpose than to slaughter you." Another jihadist writes: "All Yazidis living in Vienna, report to me. My knife is extra sharp." Yet another writes: "Every dirty devil worshiper [the Muslim term for Yazidis], report to me, you will bleed for what you did to my brothers in Herford, in the name of Allah, you will bleed and be killed by my very own hands." Evidently, he was referring to jihadist clashes with Yazidis in neighboring Germany in early August.

In Vienna, supporters of the jihadist group Islamic State [IS] have set up a "fan club" to promote holy war. They sell camouflage baseball caps emblazoned with the IS logo and T-shirts with terrorist messages in Arabic. Austrian newspapers have published photographs (here and here) of IS sympathizers posing in different locations throughout Vienna with messages of support. One reads: "One billion Muslims support the Islamic State." Austrian jihadists have been seen wearing IS attire on Vienna subway trains. Others have posted comments and photos on Facebook that glorify jihad and show weapons displays.

The propaganda has added significance because of Vienna's historic role in preventing Islam from overrunning Christian Europe during the Siege of Vienna in 1529 and the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Like Spain, Austria figures prominently in a map produced by the IS that outlines the group's five-year plan for expanding its caliphate into Europe. Today's jihadists are simply fighting a new phase of a very old conflict.

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.

Vienna Philharmonic to reveal Nazi past

BBC News online - 10 March 2013

The Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Day concert is world famous

The Vienna Philharmonic orchestra is due to publish details of its history during the Nazi era in response to accusations of a cover-up.

The orchestra has come under fire for not acknowledging alleged links to the Nazis.
The orchestra says it will also give more details about a ring of honour it presented to Baldur von Schirach, a Nazi governor of Vienna.

Von Schirach oversaw the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews.
The ring, originally presented in 1942, was lost by Von Schirach but it is claimed that a replacement was given to him in the 1960s after his release from Spandau prison for crimes against humanity.

Correspondents say Austria took several decades after World War II to acknowledge and express regret for its role in Hitler's Third Reich and in the Holocaust.

On Tuesday the country is due to mark the 75th anniversary of its annexation by Nazi Germany. The Anschluss (union) was complete when German forces invaded Austria unopposed on 12 March 1938.
Three historians, led by Oliver Rathkolb, have been commissioned by the Vienna Philharmonic to produce articles on the orchestra's history in the Nazi era that will be published on its website.
Concentration camps
 
They are expected to reveal details of 13 musicians said to have been driven out of the orchestra because of their Jewish origins or their stance on Germany's annexation of Austria.
Five of the musicians died in concentration camps.

Some members of the Philharmonic at the time have in the past been identified as Nazis.
The orchestra says it is not obliged to give public access to its archives as it is a private organisation, although it does allow access to some historians and scholars.

Orchestra Chairman Clemens Hellberg has been accused of failing to include details of the Philharmonic's Nazi links in his 1992 book Democracy of Kings, which is widely regarded as the orchestra's official history.

He has since said he did not have access to all the relevant documents when he wrote the book.
According to a summary of Oliver Rathkolb's report handed to the New York Times last month, the revelation that a replacement ring was given to Von Schirach after his release from prison came to light only recently. Von Schirach's son Richard wrote about it in a book in 2004 but refused to name the man who gave it to his father.

Mr Rathkolb found out the man's identity elsewhere.
The Vienna Philharmonic is well known for its annual New Year's Concert, a Strauss waltz extravaganza.

However, historians say the concert originated as a propaganda instrument under Nazi rule in 1939.