Austria: Imam and other mosque preacher accused of supporting the Islamic State

This is the Age of Absurdity, and one of the foremost absurdities of it is that we are all commanded to believe that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, and that properly understood, it’s a religion of peace. Never mind the numerous exhortations to violence against unbelievers in the Qur’an. Never mind the numerous Muslim clerics, men who have devoted their lives to understanding Islam properly and communicating it effectively, who have been involved in jihad activity. No, none of that is relevant, and only “racist,” “bigoted” “Islamophobes” think otherwise. It’s a funhouse world, run by clowns who think they’re professors (well, in many cases they are professors): half-wits, cowards, trimmers and liars accepted and honored as “experts,” while those who tell the truth are vilified and will soon be completely silenced. Stories like the one below would be funny if the consequences weren’t so lethal: here is a Muslim cleric who is acting on the teachings of Islam, and is telling the tallest tales and most obvious lies to prosecutors, knowing that they’re so eager to be fooled, it just might work. And indeed it might. Austrian authorities, like authorities all over the West, are so eager to believe that Islam is a religion of peace that has nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism that they will swallow the wildest implausibilities to avoid facing the prospect of a man versed in his religion acting upon his religion’s violent tenets, tenets which they steadfastly deny exist at all.

“Other defendants questioned in the Linz jihadist trial,” translated from “Weitere Angeklagte im Linzer Jihadisten-Prozess befragt,” Salzburger Nachtrichten, April 13, 2021 (thanks to Medforth):

The trial for the crime of subversive association against alleged jihadists and members of the Islamic Linz faith association Rahmet  continued on Tuesday in the provincial court in the capital of Upper Austria. In the previous year, the Supreme Court partially overturned the judgments of the Graz Regional Court, which is why it is being tried again. The proceedings were delegated to Linz, since most of the accused, but also witnesses, come from there.

After the main accused, the imam in the association, had been questioned at the start of the trial the day before; on Tuesday, the second of the three accused, who was his alleged deputy, was questioned. He was only the secretary on paper, but gave lectures when the imam was not present. He also sees himself as innocent and denied all the allegations. He designed the club’s homepage and its appearance on a social network. He did not know that he had placed the flag of the Islamic State found on the Internet there. He believed that it was just a question of the safe seal of the prophet. He has always rejected IS or the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra. He confirmed that he was involved in a Koran distribution campaign, which he described as basically “beautiful,” because its only aim was to provide information about Islam.

The Linz association had never collected money for IS-fighters or their equipment, and also not for questionable fellow believers in Bulgaria, he further assured the court. At his brother’s request, he bought a telescopic sight for him on a platform in Germany for around 200 euros and arranged for its transport to Turkey, the defendant confirmed. But he did not know that a Kalashnikov rifle could be upgraded with it. He believed the brother would sell it for a profit in Turkey to make money. He doesn’t know whether the brother fought for ISIS. He was of the opinion that the brother worked in an aid organization for Syrian refugees.

The public prosecutor also held before him some brutal “44 ways of jihad,” an “invitation to jihad,” verses of “orders to war” and a text on jihad in Somalia that had been found on his computer. The defendant defended himself and did not support them, either. The prosecution’s representative also held a bugged phone call in front of him in April 2014, from which he read that he was well aware of his brother’s involvement in IS. The defendant described this as a translation error. The chairman of the jury ordered a break after a discussion about the type of questioning.

Another defendant also pleaded not guilty. He came to the club in 2011 through his father, but not for long. At that time he was approached by the brother of the second defendant and alleged IS fighter to participate in a project for a legal street distribution of the Koran in Linz. After not finding anything negative about it, he contributed to this. The association had nothing to do with it, only a few people helped set up the stand and the first defendant stood there for a few hours. However, this did not show any signs of radicalism. He does not know what the other project participant is doing now. After a dispute between the imam and his father and the main defendant, he has had no contact with the association since the beginning of 2012, and the members were not his “age group,” either.

He denied any relation to other men who are suspected of having fought for IS. When the public prosecutor asked who had financed the Koran distribution campaign with a rumored 25 million books in Germany alone, he said he did not know. In addition to the fact that he was recorded by a surveillance camera on the club building in 2013, he discovered that he had worked in the neighboring workshop of his brother and could therefore have used the toilet there. The recording also shows that he was alone in the building….