Hooligans vs. Salafists (PART 2: Simmering, Vienna, Austria)

[Tender Branson]

FPÖ holds a demo tonight against a planned Muslim school in Vienna, with left-wingers holding a counter-protest. Police fear that it could draw hooligans and neo-nazis like last week in Cologne (Germany), when they clashed with Salafists (ironically, football "fans" from Dortmund and Schalke, who usually trash each other, stood united this time against the Salafists):

Right-wing demo against planned Islamic school



The right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) will hold a protest at the site of a planned Islamic high school in Simmering, Vienna on Thursday evening.

Muslim organisations have said they are afraid it will turn into a parade of right-wing groups, but left-wing groups have said they will hold a counter demonstration.

Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger said a total of around 400 people are expected to attend the protest, which he confirmed would go ahead despite talks on Wednesday with the FPÖ in an effort to call it off.

He told The Local that there will be “sufficient police manpower” to ensure it doesn’t turn into a riot, as happened in Cologne last weekend when violence broke out between demonstrators and police.

FPÖ club chairman Johann Gudenus will speak at the rally. He has criticized the extreme left group Linkswende, as well as the young Social Democrats and young Greens for “supporting Salafist schools and associations”.

Left-wing groups have called for a counter demonstration to show “solidarity for Muslims”, saying that they expect around 200 people to attend.

The planned private school in Florian-Hedorfer street has been heavily criticized as it would effectively be run by the Turkish state, with all lessons taught in Turkish.

Initially the group behind it registered the school with the local council as an “education centre with a kindergarten”, rather than a school for imams.

Renate Angerer, the SPÖ district chief for Simmering, said that she feels deceived but that her hands are now legally tied. “In no way is this in the spirit of integration,” she told Österreich newspaper.  

It’s still not clear if it will be given approval to go ahead. Austria’s Foreign and Integration Minister Sebastian Kurz has spoken out against the school, saying that imams should be taught in public courses run by the Austrian state.

http://www.thelocal.at/20141105/demo-against-islamic-school-in-vienna

http://kurier.at/chronik/wien/rechtsextreme-mobilisieren-fuer-fpoe-demo/95.265.999

About Germany's riots:



http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-right-wing-alliance-of-neo-nazis-and-hooligans-appears-in-germany-a-1000953.html

[ingemann]

So is it a Salafist school or a Turkish state run school?

[Tender Branson]

So is it a Salafist school or a Turkish state run school?

From what I've read it's a Turkish state run school that teaches future imams and which holds their lessons exclusively in Turkish.

The problem with this "school" is another one though: When they [the Turkish Millî-Görüs state run school umbrella organisation] presented the plans, they just announced a "kindergarden" that would help integrate children in this working-class/immigrant district of Vienna. The political district leadership approved the plans. But now, they are talking about creating an "imam school" with Turkish lessons. Considering that next year elections will take place in Vienna, this is of course something that the FPÖ has waited for.

As for "salafists": It could be possible that the protest today remains exclusively a demo between some [moderate] FPÖ-voters against the proposed "school", but there's also the chance that some neo-nazi hooligans or salafists show up to create some trouble ...

[Tender Branson]

Unlike the riots in Germany a week ago, absolutely nothing happened today in Vienna.

500 police were at the scene, 250 FPÖ supporters and 100 left-wing counterprotestors.

But the FPÖ-demo was already over at 6pm, when the Left-wingers arrived at the scene ...