Imam Yakup Aynagoz, whose salary is paid by Turkey and who was until now an imam at the Ahi Evran mosque in St Veit an der Gölsen in Lower Austria, was ordered to leave the country within seven days after his visa was not extended.
The controversial new law on Islam was introduced in February last year following allegations that Austria had allowed extremism to gain root in the country.
The claim was backed up by a number of high-profile defections of its citizens to join Islamic State militants, including two schoolgirls who became poster girls for the jihad. Samra Kesinovic, 17, and Sabina Selimovic, 16, disappeared in April 2014 and are believed to have died in Syria after being married to fighters in the Isis stronghold of Raqqa.
In Austria, hundreds of mosques and Muslim organisations across the country are funded by foreign governments including Saudi Arabia, which in turn were demanding the right to be allowed to select the imam. They often imported people directly from the Middle East with little understanding of European culture and no knowledge of the German language. [The Local] Read more
