VIENNA: The Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGÖ) has criticised the term “political Islam” as unsuitable for a specific law, saying it is too vague and lacks a clear scientific definition.
The organisation made the comments in response to an inquiry by the Austrian Press Agency after Chancellor Christian Stocker of the Austrian People’s Party called for a constitutional ban on “political Islam”.
The IGGÖ said a specialist conference it held in 2019 had already shown that the term was often used in an unclear and inconsistent way. Since no draft legislation has yet been presented, the organisation said it could not offer a serious assessment of the proposed ban, reported by ORF News.
However, the religious community said it would fully support Austria’s constitutional system if the initiative was aimed at extremist or anti democratic movements. It stressed that the country already had legal tools to confront such threats, including criminal law, regulations governing associations and state security measures.
The government must therefore explain what legal gap the proposed constitutional amendment is intended to fill, the IGGÖ said. Any new measure should be carefully worded so that lawful religious practice is not criminalised or placed under general suspicion.
Integration Minister Claudia Bauer, also a member of the Austrian People’s Party, has announced that she will soon send the coalition partners an initial outline for a constitutional ban. The coalition parties have generally indicated that they are open to Stocker’s proposal, although many details remain unresolved.
The debate has placed Austria’s efforts to fight extremism alongside concerns about religious freedom and equal treatment. For the IGGÖ, the central question is not whether anti-democratic activity should be challenged, but whether a broad and undefined label is the right foundation for constitutional law.
