“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.”
Of course. It isn’t “extremist,” as far as Džemal Šibljaković is concerned, to wage jihad for the sake of Allah.
“Vienna prison imam attacks terrorist investigation,” translated from “Wiener Gefängnis-Imam greift Terror-Ermittlungen an,” by Stefan Beig, Exxpress, June 19, 2021 (thanks to Medforth):
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.
Fred Alan Medforth says
Islamic reform theologian in Germany stripped of authorisation to teach
He has been head of the Department of Islamic Religious Education at the University of Education in Freiburg (Baden-Württemberg) for ten years, has written the standard work “Introduction to Islamic Religious Education” – and is now no longer to be allowed to train Islamic religious teachers: Abdel-Hakim Ourghi was denied the Idschaza (authorisation to teach) by the “Sunni School Board Foundation”.
Two years ago, the state government led by the Greens had given this foundation supreme authority over Islamic religious education, which is why Ourghi had to reapply for his teaching licence. The application was recently rejected.
The reason given was that Ourghi’s academic training did not meet the Foundation’s expectations. The dismissed person does not want to accept this and has appealed against the decision. In addition to his relevant experience as head of the department of religious education, he points to academic degrees: In his country of origin, Algeria, he had a degree in philosophy in 1991, and in 2006, in Germany, he earned a doctorate in Islamic Studies at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg.
Ourghi is convinced that it is not even about the formal requirements for a teaching position, but about the content of his teaching.
For the 53-year-old is fighting for a reform of Islam in the spirit of the Enlightenment. In 2016, he was one of the first signatories of the “Freiburg Declaration” of secular Muslims from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a year later he published “40 Theses for a Reformed Islam” and became co-founder of the liberal Ibn Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin, whose imamin Seyran Ates is under police protection because of many death threats.
In 2018, his book “Ihr müsst kein Kopftuch tragen – Aufklären statt verschleiern” (You don’t have to wear a headscarf – enlightenment instead of veiling) was published. Most recently, he had also approached the topic of anti-Semitism in a way that not all Muslims like: “At the age of 23, I came to Germany as an indoctrinated anti-Semite. Our socialisation in our countries of origin wanted to put us in a state of undying hatred against the Jews.” It took me years “to learn that the Jews are not the enemies of the Muslims”.
Ourghi sees himself as a victim of conservative Islamic associations, which also set the tone in the Baden-Württemberg foundation. He sees state cooperation with such umbrella organisations as “a threat to our peaceful coexistence”. Addendum: This also applies to Austria.”
By the way, there is an Austrian on the board of the foundation: Zekirija Sejdini, an Islamic theologian who teaches in Innsbruck and Vienna, does not want to comment on the case and refers to the ongoing proceedings. This is also the case with Amin Rochdi, the managing director of the foundation, who does not want to make a statement “for reasons of data protection and personal rights”.
https://medforth.biz/islamic-reform-theologian-in-germany-stripped-of-authorisation-to-teach/
Raja says
It seem no government wants any trouble, leave alone standing up to fascism.
There is no democracy when people are tortured for exposing fascism (either green or red brigade) The question is : who will bell the cat?
Infidel says
So why don’t the Austrian authorities fire him? And leave those prisoners alone as far as religion goes? Real solution is to deport every prisoner to his country of origin, regardless of passport, and for native Austrian converts to islam, life imprisonment
Raja says
Infidel,
Your solution is too far fetched.
Instead Austria should focus on using its official machinery for exposing the fascist Islam. This will send Islam into a tizzy and can help in plucking it into pieces. What is Austria losing in pursuing this?
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
One less man allowed to promote the demonic death cult.
mortimer says
Mullah Džemal Šibljaković believes that Islam is unreformable and so he accepts that belief in and practice of JIHADISM is NORMATIVE, CANONICAL Islam.
It would be HERESY and BLASPHEMY for mullah Džemal Šibljaković to differ from Sharia’s teaching on JIHADISM.
He is teaching prison inmates in effect that their goal in life is jihadic activity.to promote Islamic supremacism. What could go wrong?
However, naïve Western countries cannot defeat such ‘radical’ Islam (foundational Islam) unless they take the issue of IDEOLOGY seriously and take prison as an opportunity to take Muslims RIGHT OUT of Islam. They will do so by convincing Muslims that the Koran is of merely HUMAN ORIGIN. When Muslims see this, they drop out of Islam immediately.
James Lincoln says
mortimer,
With all due respect, what are the REAL chances of convincing someone like Džemal Šibljaković that the koran is of human origin?
gravenimage says
Yes–pious Muslims do not listen to the ‘filthy Infidel’.
gravenimage says
Austria: Prison imam agitates against counterjihad measures
……………
Of course he does. And note that Šibljaković himself has been suspected of terrorism.
Giacomo Latta says
The policy of allowing inmates to acquire a copy of the koran, or of the Bible for that matter, is insane and should be terminated. Why are these people in prison? They have broken the criminal code, so give them all a copy of that to read. Maybe they’ll be able to think straight after that.