Turkey's top cleric warns Austria over draft on Islam

Austria will turn the clock back a century if it approves a draft law on Islam scheduled to be voted on in Austria?s parliament on Feb. 25, Turkey?s top cleric has suggested.

Each country in Europe has recently been in an effort to create its own version of Islam, President Mehmet Görmez of the Directorate General for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) said in a written statement released late Feb. 24.

?Religion is not an issue of engineering. I would like to indicate that efforts by national leaders to create their own version of Islam are efforts in vain,? Görmez said, arguing that the move would set the Alpine country back a century.

Religious sensibilities are on the rise in Austria. The government has proposed requiring standardized German-language translations of the Quran and prohibiting foreign funding of Muslim organizations on its soil in a draft law aimed in part at tackling militants.

The initiative follows alarm over official estimates that about 170 people from Austria have joined up with Islamist militant forces fighting in the Middle East.

?Addressing all our friends and all governments not only in Austria but also in Europe, I would like to say the following: I have been bemusedly watching the efforts by each country to create their own versions of Islam, which would only bring Europe to a dead-end, while they should be paying attention to the issues particularly arising out of minority and integration policies and the weakening of culture of living together and take more significant precautions against advancing Islamophobia,? Görmez said.

?Countries come together from time to time on the grounds of security concerns and try to construct a version of Islam peculiar to their own countries, rather than...