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Prosecution on cards for Islam comments

An Austrian middle school teacher may be facing criminal prosecution for comments which insult Islam as a religion.

Prosecution on cards for Islam comments
Bregenz. Photo: Friedrich Böhringer/Wikimedia

The female teacher from the Austrian town of Bregenz in Vorarlberg is alleged to have described Mohammed, the prophet and founder of the religion of Islam, as a child molestor, according to a report in Vorarlberg Online.

Provincial education councillor Dr Bernadette Mennel said “yes, there is an allegation against the teacher.”

It was said that the comments came in a classroom, and were witnessed by the woman's students.  The school forwarded the complaint officially to the local prosecutors for investigation.

According to Mennel, further information would not be made available until the investigation was completed.  “Such statements are unacceptable”, she told local media.

The woman's comments are frequently used by Islamophobes and right-wing activists, and are based on a tradition from some Hadiths that Mohammad consummated his marriage with his youngest wife, Aisha, when she was nine years old.

Many contemporary Muslim scholars refute this, and claim that she was closer to 15 years old.  In any case, marriage of underage woman was common during the Middle Ages.

This is not the first time the accusations have been surfaced in Austria, as in 2009 a member of the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ), Susanne Winter, was convicted of religious incitement for making similar comments. Winter was officially expelled from the FPÖ in November for making anti-Semitic comments.

ISLAM

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday

The mayor of Cologne has announced a two-year pilot project that will allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer on the Muslim day of rest each week.

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday
The DITIP mosque in Cologne. Photo: dpa | Henning Kaiser

Mosques in the city of the banks of the Rhine will be allowed to call worshippers to prayer on Fridays for five minutes between midday and 3pm.

“Many residents of Cologne are Muslims. In my view it is a mark of respect to allow the muezzin’s call,” city mayor Henriette Reker wrote on Twitter.

In Muslim-majority countries, a muezzin calls worshippers to prayer five times a day to remind people that one of the daily prayers is about to take place.

Traditionally the muezzins would call out from the minaret of the mosque but these days the call is generally broadcast over loudspeakers.

Cologne’s pilot project would permit such broadcasts to coincide with the main weekly prayer, which takes place on a Friday afternoon.

Reker pointed out that Christian calls to prayer were already a central feature of a city famous for its medieval cathedral.

“Whoever arrives at Cologne central station is welcomed by the cathedral and the sound of its church bells,” she said.

Reker said that the call of a muezzin filling the skies alongside church bells “shows that diversity is both appreciated and enacted in Cologne”.

Mosques that are interested in taking part will have to conform to guidelines on sound volume that are set depending on where the building is situated. Local residents will also be informed beforehand.

The pilot project has come in for criticism from some quarters.

Bild journalist Daniel Kremer said that several of the mosques in Cologne were financed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, “a man who opposes the liberal values of our democracy”, he said.

Kremer added that “it’s wrong to equate church bells with the call to prayer. The bells are a signal without words that also helps tell the time. But the muezzin calls out ‘Allah is great!’ and ‘I testify that there is no God but Allah.’ That is a big difference.”

Cologne is not the first city in North Rhine-Westphalia to allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer.

In a region with a large Turkish immigrant community, mosques in Gelsenkirchen and Düren have been broadcasting the religious call since as long ago as the 1990s.

SEE ALSO: Imams ‘made in Germany’: country’s first Islamic training college opens its doors

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