Saudi School in Vienna threatened with closure

[Syt]

http://www.thelocal.at/20141215/vienna-moves-to-close-saudi-school

Saudi School threatened with closure

Vienna's School Board has threatened a controversial private Saudi School with closure by the end of the 2014/2015 school year, after it failed to provide the names of its director and teachers.

Mathias Meissner, press spokesman for the School Board, told The Local that the school failed to give names for its staff and management by a December 1st deadline, which it is legally obliged to do.

The school can appeal the board's decision within four weeks.

The school has been under review since November after a report in News magazine alleged that conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism were being taught at the school. Meissner said that these allegations still have to be proved, and the board plans to carry out inspections in the near future.

It has also been asked to provide certified German translations of all its teaching materials by the end of the year.

A reporter from News magazine got hold of a copy of a school history textbook which reportedly contained sentences like "the Freemasons were a secret, subversive Jewish organization, which aimed to secure Jewish control of the world".

Around 150 students attend the school. It is run by the Saudi government and is not a religious institution. All lessons are taught in Arabic and follow the Saudi curriculum.

However, the school must still comply with statutes set by the Austrian Education Ministry, and anti-Semitism and incitement, as well as failing to provide names of teachers, are against Austrian law.

In a similar vein, from October:

http://www.thelocal.at/20141028/saudi-funded-ngo-under-scrutiny-in-austria

Saudi-funded NGO under scrutiny in Austria

The Austrian government has said it will be observing the activities of a Saudi-funded centre in Vienna, which is supposed to foster inter-religious dialogue, before extending its contract next year.

Chancellor Werner Faymann (SPÖ) said the issue was to find if the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) was really meeting its objectives of promoting inter-religious dialogue.

KAICIID is an NGO which is exempt from paying taxes in Austria. Its goals are also to promote human rights, justice and peace.

Recently its deputy director, former justice minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner, came under fire for comments she made in an interview with Profil magazine, in which she dismissed criticism of Saudi Arabia's judicial executions as "nonsense".

When asked about the executions, she said "That's not every Friday, that's nonsense. But whatever, I'm against it anyway."

She also compared the abaya - the garment that Saudi women are forced to wear - to a judge's gown.

Vice-Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner (ÖVP) said that he disapproved of Bandion-Ortner's statements but added that he also found some of the criticism directed against her had been "too negative". Neither he nor Faymann would comment on whether they thought Bandion-Ortner should keep her job as deputy director of the centre.

The Freedom Party, which polls show will challenge the ruling coalition in the next election, wants the government to end the treaty with Saudi Arabia that grants the centre its tax-exempt status.

Austria's Green Party wants a parliamentary enquiry while Vienna's Lesbian and Gay Alliance called Bandion-Ortner's interview a "moral low point."

According to Amnesty International in 2013 at least 79 death sentences were carried out in Saudi Arabia, nearly half on foreigners. 

The KAICIID headquarters in Vienna opened in November 2012, in a ceremony attended by representatives of the world's major religions. The ceremony was overshadowed by a protest by the Green Party and various Austrian NGOs concerned about Saudi Arabia's poor human-rights record.

[Viking]

I think Austria and Germany get a free pass on persecuting anti-democratic organizations or institutions.