Two Muslim boys living in Austria, aged 15 and 16, recently confessed in the Leoben Regional Court that they would like to “kill Christians” and “restore the caliphate.” They planned to massacre as many people as possible during an attack on the middle school attended by the 15-year-old. Pictured: Leoben, where the trial took place. (Image source: David Bauer/Wikimedia Commons)
Two young Muslims living in Austria recently confessed that they would like to “kill Christians” and “restore the caliphate.”
The boys, aged 15 and 16, were put on trial at the Leoben Regional Court on July 16, 2023. They had made plans to massacre as many people as possible during an attack on the middle school attended by the 15-year-old, in Bruck an der Mur, where they both lived.
When confronted in court, the boys — who both have a history of violence and criminality— admitted that “We wanted to shoot all the Christians in the class!” Asked how they would have responded if police had intervened, they said, “We would have surrendered” — adding that “Allah would have forgiven” them in prison, since “Killing Christians takes us to paradise.”
Reflecting on the two would-be mass murderers, one article notes:
“They seem completely inconspicuous—a 16-year-old automotive apprentice and his 15-year-old friend from Bruck. But something dark was brewing in their heads. Although they were born in Austria and integrated into society, they have radicalized themselves severely. Their goal: to make Austria a caliphate. For this they also accepted to walk over corpses.... All Christians should be killed.”
They also gave me other advice, telling me I should dye my hair dark and also not dress in such a provocative way. Indirectly that means I was partly to blame for what happened to me. That is a massive insult.
The court sentenced them to two years’ imprisonment—although they will probably serve only eight months. (The maximum penalty for juveniles is five years.) The court also ordered that they undergo “anti-aggression training and a de-radicalization program” -- which, unfortunately, have repeatedly been proven ineffective.
“Incidentally, the 15-year-old set fire to the closed University of Education in Bruck in May 2022,” the article concludes.
The entire incident is a reminder that Austria appears to be sitting on a time bomb. Even though authorities managed to thwart what could have been a tragic massacre of schoolchildren — as they thwarted an earlier one in 2020 — Muslim hostility in Austria continues to grow, suggesting that it might only be a matter of time before a severe terrorist attack or worse overwhelms that nation.
As far back as 2017, an article, “Austrians living in fear as violent migrant gangs carry out DAILY attacks in Vienna,” related that:
“Muggings and beatings are becoming commonplace in the historic capital city, with passersby being attacked on almost a daily basis.... The Praterstern area, just outside central Vienna, is now controlled by North Africans and is considered the worst area in the city for crime. Despite police increasing their presence in the area it has become riddled with crime. On the other side of the city, the area surrounding the West Railway Station has been taken over by Afghans who have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.... Crimes carried out by migrants in Austria have risen rapidly over the past year as more arrive in the country. Last year [2016], there were a total 22,000 criminal complaints against migrants, up from 14,000 in 2015, the Austrian Interior Ministry revealed. Sex attacks carried out by asylum seekers has become a serious problem in Austria, with a 133 per cent increase in migrant sex attacks in the past year since the migrant crisis erupted. Swimming pools and other public venues have become some of the most prevalent areas for attacks to take place.”
Police have evidently been less than responsive — effectively blaming the victims. After a 20-year-old Austrian woman waiting at a bus stop in Vienna was attacked, beaten, and robbed by four Muslim men — including one who “started [by] putting his hands through my hair and made it clear that in his cultural background there were hardly any blonde women” — police responded by telling the victim to dye her hair:
Sex attacks carried out by asylum seekers has become a serious problem in Austria, with a 133 per cent increase in migrant sex attacks in the past year since the migrant crisis erupted.
“At first I was scared, but now I’m more angry than anything. After the attack they told me that women shouldn’t be alone on the streets after 8pm. And they also gave me other advice, telling me I should dye my hair dark and also not dress in such a provocative way. Indirectly that means I was partly to blame for what happened to me. That is a massive insult.”
- November 2020: A Muslim terror attack targeting a Catholic youth group was thwarted at the last minute. According to the report, "[The] killer wanted to cause a bloodbath of the Catholic youth group... during a prayer evening in Vienna. The Islamist failed, however, because of a door that was locked by a timer... 17 children and young people belonging to a Catholic youth group escaped a catastrophe by a hair!”
- December 2016: A 22-year-old Muslim asylum seeker from Afghanistan stabbed a 50-year-old Christian woman with a knife for reading from the Bible. The man “had taken offence to the fact that the woman had been invited by Christian residents of the property to discuss the Bible. When he found out what she was doing, he stormed into the kitchen where the woman was standing and tried to plunge the knife into her upper body.”
- April 2022 A Muslim man chased, beat, and kicked a Christian man for distributing Bibles in the streets of Vienna-Meidling.
- May 2017: What was described as a “dark skinned immigrant” was videotaped by a bystander throwing things and striking at the large cross in front of the St. Marein parish with a long pole and causing 15,000 euros’ worth of general damage to the property.
- March 2014: After reportedly listening to Muslim chants, a man went on a spree vandalizing churches and desecrated four of them by overturning or destroying statues, crosses, and altars.
- October 2020: A Muslim mob consisting of some 50 people rioted around the baptismal font and confessionals inside a church in Vienna, while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” [“Allah is the greatest!”]
- April 2020: Above the Traisen-Markt train station, passengers encountered graffiti — “Christians must die” and “Allahu Akbar” — that “caused a lot of agitation.”
- January 2021: Approximately 40 Muslim migrants rioted and burned down a Christmas tree in Favoriten. Upon coming to extinguish the blaze, the fire brigade heard one of the migrants yelling: “A Christmas tree has no place in a Muslim district,” while the raging mob pelted the emergency service officials with projectiles and screams of “Allahu Akbar!”
A quick search finds other recent incidents, including the beheading of Jesus and Mary statues in a beloved Viennese prayer garden in July 2023.
As of 2021, Muslims reportedly accounted for 8.3 percent Austria’s population. According to a 2017 PEW report, by 2050, Muslims might account for as much as 19.9 percent of Austria’s population.
Possibly most significant is that all of this hostility and violence is taking place in a backdrop where the Muslim population continues to burgeon in Austria — to the point that there are now more Muslim students than Catholics in the schools of Austrian cities, including Vienna, the capital, and Linz.
As of 2021, Muslims reportedly accounted for 8.3 percent of Austria’s population. According to a 2017 PEW report, by 2050, Muslims might account for as much as 19.9 percent of Austria’s population.
The importance of these numbers is exacerbated by the fact that Muslims seem not to be assimilating all that well in Austria, particularly the second generation. According to the Austrian newspaper Die Presse:
“Their parents came to Austria to work as skilled workers. The second generation doesn’t have any qualification, and unskilled workers are no longer needed in the job market. Unlike their parents, they speak neither German nor their mother tongue very well. And, according to OECD, they achieve lower results in school than those who were born outside of Austria. In addition, there are not enough ‘role models’, successful migrants who are present in the public sphere.
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“What can politicians do to make better integration possible?
“There are many proposals from experts. One example calls for children to be integrated early, as soon as they enter kindergarten. In the future, immigrants should be chosen not according to family relationships, but according to their job qualifications.”
“Those who believe should not take unbelievers as their friends in preference to those who believe—and whoever does so should have no [expectations] of God—unless to safeguard [taqaa, from taqiyya] yourselves against them.”
“O believers, do not hold Jews and Christians as your allies. They are allies of one another; and anyone who makes them his friends is surely one of them.”
But this might be less a reflection of Islam — which is today significantly weaker than in its Ottoman heyday — and more a reflection of a swiftly dying, less religious Europe.
More recently, in 2021, according to Deutsche Welle, “Antisemitic crimes hit record high in Austria.”
Historically, in 1683, hundreds of thousands of Muslim jihadists, led by the Ottoman Turks, encircled and laid siege to Vienna. There was a reason they chose that city. For centuries, it had been the capital of the Holy Roman Empire — which itself had long been, as the “Defender of the Faith,” the chief nemesis of Islamic jihad. At the final moment, the Europeans defeated the Muslims and lifted the siege, thereby saving not just Vienna but all of Europe.
Clearly, much has since changed. Today, Muslims are, in the name of “multiculturalism,” making the sorts of inroads in Austria, and all throughout Europe, that their ancestors could never have dreamed were possible. But this might be less a reflection of Islam — which is today significantly weaker than in its Ottoman heyday, although apparently still filling a major role in the hearts of its adherents — and more a reflection of a swiftly dying, less-religious Europe.
