VIENNA (AFP)---Prosecutors in Austria said they had launched an inquiry into anti-Islamic remarks made by a far-right politician that have provoked outrage among politicians, Muslims and church leaders.
Leaders of Austria’s Islamic community meanwhile said that Muslims were angered by the remarks, but appealed for calm.
Susanne Winter, an activist with the populist far-right FPOe party was reported by media as describing Islam’s prophet Mohammed as a "child molester" who wrote the Koran "during epileptic fits".
Winter, who made the comments at the traditional New Year’s congress of party in the southern city of Graz, is standing as an FPOe candidate in the Graz municipal elections on January 20.
National dailies covering the event including Die Presse, Der Standard, Kurier and Oesterreich, published Winter’s remarks.
"Our attention was brought to the case by the media reports," said Manfred Kammerer of the public prosecutors’ office of Graz.
They were investigating whether or not it constituted incitement to racial hatred, he added.
Kammerer said Winter would be questioned about her comments in the next few days, after which prosecutors would decide what steps should be taken.
In Austria, incitement to racial hatred is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.
In a separate interview with the tabloid daily Oesterreich published Monday, Winter went even further. She spoke of a "tsunami of Muslim immigration" threatening to engulf Western Europe and alleged that "child abuse by Islamic men is widespread."
Austria’s Islamic community meanwhile appealed for restraint.
"We appeal to all Muslims to remain calm and not be provoked by third-class politicians," said a spokeswoman for the Islamic community’s religious organisation, IGGIOe, Carla Amina Baghajati.
All of Austria’s main political parties expressed outrage at the remarks.
"Ms. Winter has consciously chosen to be provocative," said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik in a statement. "We roundly reject her remarks and the way she made them."
In a statement, IKG, Vienna’s Jewish community, accused Winter of "hurting religious feelings for political ends" and welcomed the news that prosecutors were investigating.
