The good people of Austria are shocked -- shocked, I say! -- to learn that the Muslims they’ve invited to live among and benefit from them hold to various divisive, if not downright hostile, doctrines.

According to a May 10, 2023 article, “alarm bells are ringing” in Austria following the publication of a report on what Austrian mosques are teaching to Muslims.

One of these teachings, according to the report, is that “Muslim children should only have Muslim friends.”  To underscore the magnitude of this finding, keep in mind that there are now more Muslims than Catholics in Vienna, Linz, and other Upper Austrian regions.

Commenting on this divisive finding that impacts such a large demographic, Manfred Haimbuchner of Austria’s conservative Freedom Party said:

So Muslims should only be friends with Muslims? This is taught in the Upper Austrian mosques. What does [Austrian president] Van der Bellen say about this? What is the President’s opinion on this fact?

In fact, all Western leaders would do well to ponder and answer this question -- not least as the call for Muslims not to befriend non-Muslims is not some aberration unique to Islam in Austria, but is rather a mainstream Islamic teaching that goes straight back to the Koran.  Here, for example, is Koran 3:28:

Let believers [Muslims] not take infidels [non-Muslims] for friends and allies in place of believers.  Whoever does so will have nothing to hope for from Allah -- unless it is by way of taqiyya against them.

The latter portion of that verse referencing taqiyya means that, whenever Muslims are in a position of weakness, they may pretend to befriend and ally with non-Muslims, as long as they continue harboring hate for the infidels in their hearts (for other Islamic-sanctioned forms of deception, read about tawriya and taysir).

Koran 5:51 is even more explicit, and names names:

O believers! Take neither Jews nor Christians for friends and allies -- for they are friends and allies of one another. Whoever does so will be counted as one of them. Surely Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.

But the matter is far worse than not befriending non-Muslims. Koran 60:4 calls for Muslims to perpetually hate all non-Muslims until they “believe in Allah alone.”  Here is how Osama bin Laden explained that verse:

As to the relationship between Muslims and infidels, this is summarized by the Most High’s Word: “We renounce you. Enmity and hate shall forever reign between us -- till you believe in Allah alone” [Koran 60:4]. So there is an enmity, evidenced by fierce hostility from the heart. And this fierce hostility -- that is, battle -- ceases only if the infidel submits to the authority of Islam, or if his blood is forbidden from being shed [i.e., a dhimmi], or if Muslims are at that point in time weak and incapable [of going on the offensive]. But if the hate at any time extinguishes from the heart, this is great apostasy!… Such, then, is the basis and foundation of the relationship between the infidel and the Muslim. Battle, animosity, and hatred -- directed from the Muslim to the infidel -- is the foundation of our religion.  (The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 43).

Similarly, after quoting the hate-all-infidels verse, Koran 60:4, the Islamic State (ISIS) confessed to the West that “We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers.”  As for any and all political “grievances,” these are “secondary” reasons for the jihad, the group said:

The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you.

Many other hostile and divisive verses permeate the Koran (see also 4:89, 4:144, 5:51, 5:54, 6:40, 9:23, and 60:1).  Koran 58:22 goes as far as to praise Muslims who kill their own non-Muslim family members. 

Little wonder, then, that America’s supposed best Muslim friends and allies -- such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- have issued fatwas (in Arabic) calling on all Muslims to “oppose and hate whomever Allah commands us to oppose and hate, including the Jews, the Christians, and other mushrikin [polytheists, blanket term for non-Muslims], until they believe in Allah alone and abide by his laws, which he sent down to his Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him.”

The matter is such that, because enmity for non-Muslims is so ironclad in the Koran, mainstream Islamic teaching holds that Muslim men must even hate -- and show that they hate -- their non-Muslim wives, while enjoying them sexually, or for their wealth, etc.

Returning to an Austria that is shocked to learn that local mosques are indoctrinating Muslim children not to befriend non-Muslims, Manfred Haimbuchner, after pointing out that, for Muslims in Austria, “integration is apparently undesirable and actively prevented by teaching in mosques,” said,

We stand for the practice of religion within the framework of religious freedom. However, if an ideology is spread under the guise of religious freedom that is not compatible with the values of Austrian society, the state must take action.

In other words, if a “religion,” in this case, Islam, preaches things that go directly against the values of any given state -- for example, that people should be hated on account of their religion -- should that state tolerate it?

The answer is obvious, but will anyone do anything about it, or will they continue thrusting their heads in the sand in the name of “inclusivity,” “multiculturalism,” and the rest?

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar  is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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