Islamic Kindergartens in Austria Spark Controversy: Children Being Indoctrinated in Dangerous Radical Ideas?
A study has sparked concern in Austria after it suggested that undocumented Islamic kindergartens in Vienna, the nation's capital, were teaching young children radical Islamic viewpoints, thus possibly indoctrinating them to become future jihadists.
Ednan Aslan, the author of the study who is a Turkish-born Austrian professor at Vienna University, said some 10,000 children aged two to six attend around 150 Muslim preschools, teaching them the Quran, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
More than 30 of these schools, according to Aslan, are supported by groups propagating radical Islamic viewpoints that see religion not just as a private matter but as part of politics and society.
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"Parents are sending their kids to establishments that ensure they are in a Muslim setting and learn a few suras (chapters from the Koran)," Aslan told AFP.
The study, published last year, is now being used by critics of immigration — including the far-right Freedom Party — following recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, according to Free West Media.
Austria, a nation of 8.7 million people, has opened its doors to more than 130,000 asylum seekers since 2015.
The Freedom Party is doing well in the polls even as surveys suggest that public attitudes to Muslims have hardened, the news outlet said.
The ruling coalition in Austria has moved to ban full-face Islamic veils in public and to oblige migrants to sign an "integration contract," it added.
The question on whether Muslim kindergarten teachers could even inadvertently indoctrinate children into radical thinking has also been raised in Indonesia.
Last year, a group in the Southeast Asian country "discovered textbooks aimed at kindergarteners containing 'dangerous radical Islamic teachings,'" Todayonline.com reported.
"This could endanger the children's future," said Benny Ramdani of the Ansor Youth Movement, a group associated with Indonesia's largest Muslim community.
"In its report Ansor noted certain sentences in the book: 'Sahid di medan jihad'[die as a jihadist], 'Rela mati bela agama' [willingly die for religion], 'Hati-hati zona bahaya' [warning, dangerous zone] and 'Bahaya sabotase' [danger of sabotage]," The Jakarta Post reported.
