Separating out Islamism from Islam

The Daily Mail reports:

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has urged the European Union to respond to ‘political Islam’ and called for an end to the ‘misunderstood tolerance’ in the wake of the terrorist attack in Vienna which left four people dead.

Mr Kurz called on countries across Europe to ‘focus much more strongly on the problem of political Islam in the future’ and said its ideologies were ‘dangerous’ for European freedoms and values. 

The common name for political Islam is Islamism. Islamists don’t just see their religion as a code of behavior that adherents should voluntarily adhere to, but they want to see it made mandatory through the political system.

His comments come after it was revealed the Vienna gunman Kujtim Fejzulai, 20, had been jailed in April 2019 because he wanted to travel to Syria to join ISIS but was later granted early release in December under juvenile law. 

Fejzulai duped officials in a 2019 trial by saying he had been led astray by the ‘wrong mosque’ and then convinced ‘de-radicalisation’ counsellors he had renounced his ISIS ideals as part of a parole deal.

However Mr Kurz went on to describe the decision to release Fejzulai- who was shot dead by police on Monday evening – as ‘definitely wrong’.

‘If he had not been released then the terror attack would not have been possible,’ Mr Kurz told public broadcaster ORF on Tuesday.              

Was he monitored after release?

The Chancellor’s comments come as the first victim of the Vienna terror attack was revealed to the public. 

Nexhip Vrenezi, 21, was one of the four people killed by gunman Fejzulai in the Austrian capital on Monday night.

Vrenezi, a young Muslim of Albanian descent, was shot four times when he left a pub to have a cigarette on the last night before Austria’s new lockdown rules came into force. …

His former teacher Helene Fuchs-Moser told BILD: ‘It’s so sad. I am shocked. I still remember him very well. He was a fun-loving, nice guy. And yes, a Muslim [himself].’

He prayed for peace and opposed the use of his religion by fundamentalists.

Nexhip was also a big fan of British boxer Ricky Hatton, played football and dreamed of owning a fast car like a Porsche.

He had just returned home from a six-month stint with the Austrian army and was planning his future career and considering medicine.

Friends paid tribute today to Nexhip with one saying: ‘He was a good person, the type of friend you needed to speak to every day because he was good for your soul.

‘He has gone and many of his friends are crying because he would have done the world so much good like being a doctor or something.  

‘He and his younger brother were inseparable and played Minecraft and yugijo together. We are trying to help him now with love and all be his big brother. But Nexhip’s life has been wasted by this pig.’

Another friend Maya Uruz, 20, said: ‘Many girls had a crush on him because he was a gentleman. He was very popular, a very kind person.’

Vrenezi sounds like a poster child for integration. So sad he was killed by this extremist.