Death threat against FPÖ politician justifies her attack on Islam

FPÖ General Secretary Harald Vilimsky said Wednesday that the Islamic death threat against Graz FPÖ politician Susanne Winter had justified her Sunday attack on Islam.

Winter had claimed at the FPÖ's New Year's meeting in Graz six days before the municipal election there that the prophet Mohammed had been "a child molester" and written the Koran during "epileptic fits."

A death threat against Winter claiming to be from European Al-Qaeda appeared on the internet on Monday. The head of her party's list in the January 20 municipal election, she has subsequently received protection from members of the elite Cobra security force.

Vilimsky added that the FPÖ was awaiting "a clear response" to the death threat from Austrian President Heinz Fischer and SPÖ Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer.

The party general secretary declared that he would not distance himself from Winter's remarks and that Austria needed a tougher policy against radical Islam.

Vilimsky called for additional security measures such as mandatory identification of each passport holder's religion in the holder's travel document, fingerprint data for persons with an Islamic background and creation of a special unit in the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism to combat terrorism.

Vilimsky claimed that it was "especially piquant" that a "phalanx" of representatives of other political parties and Austrian religious groups had distanced themselves from Winter but had had no response to death threats against her. Vilimsky called Fischer's failure to respond "shameful."

The FPÖ official added that the FPÖ had received more than 30 threats after Winter's speech and demanded that ÖVP Interior Minister Günther Platter "dismantle" all Islamic "cells" in Austria.

Vilimsky thanked Winter for having initiated discussion of Islam in a "pointed and worthy" manner. He charged that the public prosecutor's investigation of Winter for possible violation of the law on hate crimes had been undertaken by "completely politicised authorities dependent on commands from above."

16.01.2008 14:58:05