Podium discussion on political Islam

Under the title “Political Islam – Challenge for Our City”, a podium discussion organized by the FPÖ Education Institute, FPÖ Academy Vienna and FPÖ Club at the Vienna City Hall was held on Thursday, February 13th, 2020. The Deputy Mayor of Vienna, Dominik Nepp (FPÖ) welcomed as the evening’s special guest ex-jihadist and author Irfan Peci, who is actively engaged in efforts to prevent the radicalization of young Muslims in Germany. The discussion was moderated by City Councilor Maximilian Krauss (FPÖ) at the venue “ThirtyFive” in the “myhive Twin Tower” on the Wienerberg, high above the roofs of Vienna, before an audience of roughly 130 guests.

The core messages of the event were: The Islamization of Europe, and therefore Vienna, is no longer taking place in secret but openly and visible to anyone willing to keep their eyes open. But even conservative politicians like Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) would permit it to continue, while parties like the SPÖ, Greens and NEOS would even promote this development out of a misguided understanding of tolerance.

According to Peci, religious networks are undermining state authority
Irfan Peci, who immigrated to Germany from Bosnia as a child and was later an informant for Germany’s domestic security agency (BfV), analyzed how Islamization by Muslims in Germany and Austria functions. By way of illustration, he quoted from a report of the French domestic intelligence service DGSI listing 150 districts in France that could already be considered under the de facto control of Islamists. Peci noted that the procedure is the same everywhere in Europe: “The Islamists focus on city districts with growing Muslim populations, they enter into ‘cooperation’ with parties on the left that are friendly to foreigners with the promise of organizing Muslims to vote for them and receive in return strategic positions in the administration of these districts. In this way, local politics are undermined by the religious network and state authority is overridden.”

Deputy Mayor Dominik Nepp considered Peci’s observations to be confirmed by observations on his own “district tour”: “Whether in Favoriten, Simmering or Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, in many neighborhoods, you might think you are in Ankara and no longer in Vienna.” Sausage stands have been replaced by kebab stands, taverns and grocers by Turkish eateries and food shops. “Thanks to the red-green diversity mania, the city is inexorably losing its identity,” warns Nepp, calling for immediate counteractions.

According to Peci, this change of attitude has to begin in the mosques. Because these are much more than houses of prayer: “The mosques are for many Muslims the focal point of their lives. They serve as cultural centers, provide rooms for young people to study the Koran and for recreation under the supervision of Islamists: They ensure that no one departs from the ‘right’ path, meaning the one prescribed by religious faith.” He called the “foreign financing ban” praised by Chancellor Kurz (ÖVP) a sham. The construction of cultural centers can still be largely financed from abroad, only the “operations” must be financed by the believers themselves, but even this is difficult to monitor.

Is the FPÖ the only safeguard against Islamization?
Peci named the FPÖ as the only party working to counteract Islamization. He believes the party has the right concept here: Practicing their own traditions and values and demanding that immigrants accept and observe them as well. “Anyone who so little appreciates their own values and traditions as the Greens and other parties on the left with their misguided ‘one world’ belief has already lost the fight against the Islamization of their homeland,” warned Peci.

The video of the event can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRUEwgIff_I&t=170s