Amir El-Shamy is general secretary of the Austrian branch of the organisation Iman, which belongs to the worldwide Dawah movement (conversion to Islam). The four-day workshop, “only for brothers”, in which the contribution towards expenses is €50, took place at the end of August 2019 somewhere in Salzburg’s mountains.
The accommodation shown on Facebook seems to be in Tennengau, the regional Austrian daily the Salzburger Fenster reported.
The psychologically sophisticated programme aims at creating the experience of togetherness, esteem and orientation — things that young people in a Western consumer society often lack. After the crash course, one participant Kevin reported on the happy feelings he had experienced.
The former life of the likeable blond manufacturer from Lower Bavaria included alcohol, party nights and hanging out. Now Kevin believes this is un-Islamic and haram.
The seminar in the mountains is part of the global jihad underway since the 1970s. This extremely reactionary Islam has been carried into the world. According to the US State Department, Saudi sheikhs and Qatar have pumped $130 billion into this struggle over the past ten years. Thus, millions and millions of dollars flowing with the spirit of Islamic Sharia into the construction of schools, kindergartens and mosques in Bosnia. The dress code of these people is long beards.
A leadership team of the Iman movement came to Salzburg to explore locations in January. Among them was the managing director of the umbrella organisation Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) based in London. The non-profit employs 36 field representatives, internally called “range specialists”. They build up local networks, organise training camps and collect donations.
According to the Annual Report 2018/19, the company is active on six continents, has distributed 391 239 sets of material and converted 4 000 people. The priority for Europe is “the development of a Muslim infrastructure in twelve countries: the Netherlands, Czechia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia”.
The leadership duo is active on Facebook and Twitter, runs a TV channel on YouTube showing their street-dawa, where flyers are distributed and passers-by are involved in conversations that are usually hopelessly cornered with clever questioning techniques. The only exception was an 80-year-old eloquent Viennese who turned the tables, took over the conversation and said that he felt threatened by political Islam.
The founder of the Islamic Academy of Education, Anthony Abdurraheem Green, a British convert, admits that he is a bigamist with two wives (and ten children). According to Green in the monthly “Islamic Voice”, this is legally covered by precedents.
Green and his movement have repeatedly been accused of hate speech and of spreading “anti-Semitic, misogynistic and homophobic propaganda”.
