Ban on minarets in Carinthia

Jörg Haider, the right-wing populist premier of the Austrian state of Carinthia, has tabled a law that would make it impossible to build mosques in the state. Two percent of the population of Carinthia is Muslim. Elisabeth Steiner writes: "With the aid of a 'special commission on local architecture' it will in practice be possible to stop the future construction of 'unusual buildings' that do not accord with the architectural traditions of Carinthia and Central European culture. It has apparently been forgotten that the Bosnian Muslims, for instance, who are now the main group of Muslims in Carinthia, once formed an elite unit in the army of the Habsburg monarchy. This monarchy recognised Islam as a religious community in 1912. And indeed it was for this reason that the first attempt to introduce such a law, which contained an explicit ban on building mosques and minarets, failed. For this would have denied Muslims the right to practice their religion."

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