Austrian authorities have shut down a mosque and an Islamic association frequented by the man who killed four people in a terror attack in Vienna earlier this week.
Integration Minister Susanne Raab and Interior Minister Karl Nehammer announced the closure of the Tewhid Mosque in Vienna and the Melit Ibrahim Association on Friday following a meeting with the president of Austria’s Islamic Faith Community, Ümit Vural, local media reported.
The decision came after a 20-year-old supporter of ISIS terrorist group went on a deadly rampage in the Austrian capital on Monday night, killing four. The attacker was shot dead by police.
The gunman had frequented the mosque and the association, Raab said, saying the closure decision was made in the name of national security as the two institutions had been found not to hold a “positive attitude toward society and the state” as mandated in Austria’s so-called Islam Law.
But she stressed that the move should not be seen as an attack on Islam or Muslims. “The goal of terrorism is to drive a wedge into our society — between Muslims and non-Muslims,” she said.
