Austria: Kurz tackles immigration at school level

Austria: Kurz tackles immigration at school level

Via the Austrian Times:

Integration Secretary Sebastian Kurz, 26, was at the ministry of interior affairs this week discussing with educationalists whether schools were failing in their mission of integration.

(...)

Going further, he stated how: ‘In the capital, the percentage of people of migrant stock rises to 39%. Vienna like many other European capitals has 150 languages spoken in its schools. At primary school level, one in two pupils is of a migration background, mostly from the Balkans and Turkey.

Under the motto, ‘Integration through achievement’, the question of language was a major theme as schools are frequently the last bastions of community in urban settings. Some Viennese schools in districts like Brigitenau and Ottakring have a migrant intake that is over 80%. 

(source)

Germany: Al-Qaeda plans buried in porn

Germany: Al-Qaeda plans buried in porn

Via CNN:

On May 16 last year, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin was being questioned by police in Berlin. He had recently returned from Pakistan via Budapest, Hungary, and then traveled overland to Germany. His interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards.

Buried inside them was a pornographic video called "Kick Ass" -- and a file marked "Sexy Tanja."

Several weeks later, after laborious efforts to crack a password and software to make the file almost invisible, German investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video a treasure trove of intelligence -- more than 100 al Qaeda documents that included an inside track on some of the terror group's most audacious plots and a road map for future operations.

Future plots include the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pakistani militants that paralyzed the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008. Ten gunmen killed 164 people in that three-day rampage.

Terrorist training manuals in PDF format in German, English and Arabic were among the documents, too, according to intelligence sources.

(source)

Austria: Integration secretary plans home visit initiative

Austria: Integration secretary plans home visit initiative

Via the Austrian Times:

Social workers will visit badly integrated foreigners at home to help them learning German, People’s Party (ÖVP) Integration Secretary Sebastian Kurz announced yesterday (Tues).

Kurz said his office planned to expand a successful Viennese pilot project concept based on programmes in Switzerland and Australia to several other Austrian towns and cities in the coming months. The project has a budget of 300,000 Euros, according to Austria’s first state secretary for integration who was sworn in around one year ago.

(source)

Austria: Far-right party probed over ‘racist’ poster slammed by Morocco as ‘humiliating’ (update: FPÖ apologizes)

Austria: Far-right party probed over ‘racist’ poster slammed by Morocco as ‘humiliating’

(APA/ROBERT PARIGGER)

Austria: Catholic convert speaks out after fleeing her Muslim family following 'honour killing' threat

Austria: Catholic convert speaks out after fleeing her Muslim family following 'honour killing' threat

Via the Daily Mail (h/t DW):

Miss James, who grew up in a rural village near the Kashmir mountains, said her problems began when she was 15 and the family lived in the Austrian city of Linz.

While she enjoyed the freedoms of Western culture, such as wearing lipstick and eyeliner, her conservative parents, who were brought together in an arranged marriage, disapproved.

(...)

So began three years of violence between them, Miss James claimed, based on her refusal to be in a forced marriage and the embarrassment it caused the family's Pakistani peers in Austria.

(source)

Vienna: "Diversity and Tolerance" contest

Vienna: "Diversity and Tolerance" contest

First Prize winner of the U. S. Embassy Vienna Video Contest "Diversity and Tolerance"

Vienna: Boys Choir Backs Integration Through Music

Vienna: Boys Choir Backs Integration Through Music

Via the Austrian Times:

Immigrant children in Austria are being given singing lessons organised by the Vienna Boys choir as part of a project to encourage integration through music.

The idea that started as a pilot scheme three years ago has now grown so popular that more than 600 children across the capital Vienna are now getting free singing lessons.

(source)

Austria: FPÖ meet with Chechen President, discuss encouraging return of Chechen refugees

Austria: FPÖ meet with Chechen President, discuss encouraging return of Chechen refugees

Via the Austrian Times:

The Freedom Party (FPÖ) has been harshly criticised for meeting with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

(...)

Hübner and FPÖ Vienna whip Johann Gudenus – who was also part of the FPÖ delegation – said they agreed with Kadyrov and his team about the creation of a cultural association for Chechen refugees in Austria. The Austrian right-wing politicians said the planned club should encourage them to return to their home country. Gudenus said: "We were able to convince ourselves that Kadyrov would not persecute them."

(source)

Vienna: Racist youth check causes controversy

Vienna: Racist youth check causes controversy

Via Austrian Times:

A sociologist has questioned the results of a disputed study on Austrian teens’ attitudes.

Newspaper commentators, integration experts and radio talk show hosts engaged in a heated debate about the outcome of the latest examination by the Austrian Institute for Youth Culture Research. The organisation found that 43.6 per cent of Vienna-based teens agreed with the statement that "there are way too many Turks in Austria."

The poll – in which Austrians aged between 16 and 19 participated – also found that 11.2 per cent were of the opinion that German Third Reich dictator Adolf Hitler "also did many good things."

(source)

EU: Italy, Austria team up against undocumented migrants

EU: Italy, Austria team up against undocumented migrants

Via the Times of Malta:

Italy and Austria plan to step up the fight against undocumented migrants and crime along their shared border, their interior ministers said after a meeting in Rome today. "Both ministers agreed on the need to intensify cooperation on cross-border operations and joint investigations in the fight against crime and illegal trafficking, including the exchange of information and data," a statement said. Italian Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri and her Austrian counterpart Johanna Mikl-Leitner stressed their desire to "continue to work within the European Union to elaborate migration policies," it said.

Tens of thousands of undocumented migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy so far this year -- mainly Tunisians and African workers from Libya, but also Afghans, Egyptians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans.

(source)

Berlin: Viennese Islamist starts new Jihadi group

Berlin: Viennese Islamist starts new Jihadi group

"Wanted by the Islamic court for Truth and Justice for War-Crimes against Muslims"
(Millatu-Ibrahim site)

Note that Merkel, the only woman, is pixalized

Graz: Police chief warns mosque might serve for radical infiltration

Graz: Police chief warns mosque might serve for radical infiltration

Austria: Forced marriage law extension likely

Austria: Forced marriage law extension likely

Via the Austrian Times:

People’s Party (ÖVP) State Secretary Sebastian Kurz has called for a reform of Austria’s anti-forced marriage law.

Forced marriages are not a criminal offence under the current regulations if carried out abroad. Austrians and people living in Austria are facing legal consequences for such actions only if this kind of marriage occurs within the country’s borders.

Kurz – who took office as Austria’s first state secretary for integration in April – said yesterday (Sun): "Forced marriages are criminal acts and must not be tolerated." The ÖVP Vienna boss told Die Presse and radio station Ö1 he was optimistic about coming to an agreement with ÖVP Justice Minister Beatrix Karl.

(source)

Vienna: Saudi Arabia to set up interreligious centre

Vienna: Saudi Arabia to set up interreligious centre

Foreign Ministers Prince Saud al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, Michael Spindelegger of Austria and Trinidad Jimenez of Spain, from left, pose after signing the agreement for the establishment of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, KAICID, in Vienna, Austria, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Austria: Court clears politician over mosque game

Austria: Court clears politician over mosque game

Vienna: Life-threatening injuries after headscarf caught in mixer

Vienna: Life-threatening injuries after headscarf caught in mixer

Via the Austrian Times:

A woman almost got strangled when her headscarf got caught in a dough mixer.

The 21-year-old woman worked a dough mixing machine in a tent at a party in Vienna's Krieau on Saturday night when her headscarf was caught in the running machine, strangling her by the throat.

(source)

Austria: 45% think conflict potential with Muslims is very high

Austria: 45% think conflict potential with Muslims is very high

Via the Austrian Times:

A new survey has revealed a significant potential for conflicts between Austrians and foreigners.

A poll by the Centre for Future Studies of Salzburg’s FH higher education college shows that 53 per cent of Austrians considered the change that existing difficulties in the coexistence of themselves and immigrants could worsen as "very high".

Around 45 per cent of interviewed Austrians said the same considering Christians and Muslims while 31 per cent were of the same opinion as far as the situation between rich and poor was regarded.

(source)

Austria: "Intensify dialogue with the Islamic Religious Community"

Austria: "Intensify dialogue with the Islamic Religious Community"

Via Austrian Foreign Ministry:

Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger met in the Foreign Ministry this afternoon with the new President of the Islamic Religious Community in Austria, Fuat Sanac, who was elected to the office in June this year. During the meeting, Spindelegger underlines the significance Austria attaches to the historically grown relations with the Islamic Religious Community.

The election of Fuat Sanac at the helm of the IGGiÖ brings great expectations, said Spindelegger, mentioning for instance the "specific development of Islam in Europe and its compatibility with the European model of life".

"We must seize the opportunity of the upcoming anniversary year to further intensify our dialogue and deal with the threats from populism and marginalisation, which we must encounter together with determination“, said the Foreign Minister, referring to the upcoming 100th anniversary of the legal recognition of Islam in Austria in 2012.

(source)

Vienna: Christian, Jewish, Muslim prayers for Habsburg

Vienna: Christian, Jewish, Muslim prayers for Habsburg

Austria: Muslim leader resigns for saying sport unhealthy for women

Austria: Muslim leader resigns for saying sport unhealthy for women

Via AP:

The vice president of Austria's Islamic community says he is resigning after local media quoted him as saying too much sport is unhealthy for women.

Ahmet Hamidi says he has been misquoted, but is stepping down to deflect possible criticism of the Islamic community.

Hamidi, a doctor of internal medicine, was quoted last week as telling a Vienna daily that "too much sport is not good for the female organism, this has been clearly proven."

He said Friday that he said only that extreme sports can have negative results for women, and that he offered that opinion as a doctor and not as a functionary of the Islamic community.

(source)