Last year’s raids on 70 Austrian Muslim homes was overseen by Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (Credit: European Peoples Party)

Using the code-name Operation Luxor, the Austrian Government carried out its largest wave of peacetime police raids against its Muslim citizens in the early hours of November 9, 2020. The raids, overseen by Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, were simultaneously executed at 70 homes across four federal states. A total of 930 law enforcement personnel, including police officers, special agents and constitutional protection officials, were mobilised for the operation.

One year on, no one affected by the raids has been charged with any offence despite having their lives turned upside down. It is vital that the world understands the catalogue of injustices and deceptions that Muslims face everywhere, including in Europe.

As reported by the last census that collected information on religion in 2001, there were 338,988 Muslims in Austria, which may seem insignificant but is equivalent to about 4.2 per cent of Muslims in England.

The Government there has taken a variety of controversial steps under the guise of combatting so-called ‘political Islam,’ including mosque closures, hijab bans, and proposed ‘Sharia bans.’

The most chilling example of Austria’s overarching policy has been the targeting of Muslims through guilt-by-association which was unveiled on May 29, when the Documentation Centre, together with Integration Minister Raab, rolled-out the damning ‘Islam Map’ that has invited Islamophobic attacks. A few days after the Operation Luxor raids, an Anti-Terror Bill was introduced to target so-called “Political Islam”, mirroring the approach taken by other politicised ‘counter-extremist’ elsewhere, similar to the much-discredited Prevent Extremism agenda in the UK.

A year on and Muslims in Austria are still seeking justice and calling for the end of the “extraordinary means and state surveillance” of their community in the country. The police raids have already been declared unlawful by the Higher Regional Court of Graz city. However, victims of the raid are seeking to be fully vindicated by due process.

Like in Britain and elsewhere, Muslims have become under permanent suspicion through imposing so-called anti-extremism measures on normal civil, social and political life. Calls are being made to oppose the infamous anti-Terror Bill seen as repressive and Islamophobic as well as opening the door for an even broader crackdown across Austrian society which has witnessed a sharp turn towards visceral racism and xenophobia similar to neighbouring Hungary.

The governing ÖVP is accused of infiltrating intelligence and police operations by weaponising institutions such as the Documentation Centre to fabricate evidence that advances narratives criminalising Muslims and Islam. Austrian media is also being urged to uphold journalistic standards and ethics to stem the worrying trend of disseminating false information and to prevent the press from whipping up Islamophobia while uncritically promoting the government line.