• Operation Luxor, launched in November 2020, was a large-scale police operation in Austria targeting Muslim individuals and organisations, justified by unsubstantiated claims of links to extremism
• Despite court rulings declaring the raids unlawful, Austria’s government has continued its unjust policies towards its Muslim population
In the early hours of 9 November 2020, just a week after a tragic terrorist attack in Vienna, Austria launched one of the most extensive and controversial police operations in its history. Operation Luxor, involving 940 officers, targeted more than 70 individuals and organisations within Austria’s Muslim civil society, including aid organisations like Rahma Austria and various mosques. This operation, framed as a crackdown on “Islamist separatism” has since become emblematic of Austria’s aggressive approach towards its Muslim population—an approach that has drawn criticism and legal rebukes for its lack of evidence and heavy-handed tactics.
At the time, the operation received international attention. Lorenzo Vidino, a prominent figure in the study of extremism and director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, praised Austria’s then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for leading Europe’s “crackdown on Islamists”. In an article for Foreign Policy, Vidino suggested that Austria, rather than France, should be the model for European nations seeking to combat political Islam. Both Kurz and French President Emmanuel Macron had positioned themselves as “protectors of European values”, arguing that their measures were necessary to defend the majority of “peaceful Muslims” from a dangerous minority.
However, these measures often conflated public expressions of Islam with extremism, leading to the criminalisation of political participation and anti-Islamophobia activism. The rhetoric of fighting “Islamist separatism” became a pretext for undermining civil liberties, with devastating consequences for Austria’s Muslim community.
A History of Tolerance Turned Repressive
Austria’s relationship with its Muslim population has not always been this strained. For decades, Austria prided itself on its relatively inclusive approach, grounded in the Islam Act of 1912, which provided a legal framework for integrating Muslims into Austrian society. This law, unique in Europe, allowed Muslims to establish associations on an equal footing with other religious minorities, fostering a sense of belonging and participation within Austrian society.
However, the rise of Sebastian Kurz and his Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) in 2017 marked a significant shift. Kurz’s government abolished the original Islam Act, replacing it with the Islam Act of 2015, which imposed stricter surveillance and controls on Muslim institutions. This new legislation paved the way for policies like the ban on the hijab in preschools and elementary schools and the closure of several mosques—actions that courts later overturned, but not before they had inflicted significant harm.
Operation Luxor: A Flawed and Damaging Campaign
Operation Luxor represented the culmination of these repressive policies. The raids, justified by accusations of links to the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist groups, targeted prominent figures such as Anas Schakfeh, former president of the Islamic Council of Austria. Despite the scale of the operation, no arrests or charges were made, and livelihoods were destroyed as assets and bank accounts were frozen based on unsubstantiated claims.
The operation was initially met with silence from much of civil society and the media, who largely echoed the government’s narrative of fighting terrorism. However, seven months later, appellate courts ruled in all nine appeals that the raids were unlawful and that the entire investigation lacked any legal basis. This legal defeat underscored the operation’s fundamental flaws, but neither the justice minister, Alma Zadic, nor the interior minister, Karl Nehammer—who would later succeed Kurz as Chancellor—took responsibility for this mess.
The Political Aftermath and Continued Persecution
Despite the court rulings, Austria’s political leadership has continued to defend the operation. The state prosecutor has persisted in investigating a reduced number of individuals and institutions, even though the initial cases have crumbled under legal scrutiny. This ongoing persecution highlights the entrenched bias within Austria’s political and legal systems against its Muslim population, which constitutes nearly nine percent of the country’s population but remains significantly underrepresented in political life.
Moreover, the legacy of Operation Luxor continues to influence Austrian policy. The creation of the Documentation Center Political Islam in July 2020 and the controversial “Islam Map,” which publicly listed Muslim associations and their representatives, are part of an ongoing effort to monitor and control Muslim communities. These measures have drawn criticism from international bodies like the Council of Europe, but Austria’s government remains undeterred.
Conclusion: A “Gigantic Flop” with Lasting Consequences
Three years after Operation Luxor, the operation is widely regarded as a “gigantic flop”. It failed to produce any concrete evidence of wrongdoing, yet it succeeded in undermining the civil liberties of Austria’s Muslims and eroding trust between the community and the state. The operation’s aftermath continues to reverberate, with recent actions suggesting that the Austrian government is not done targeting its Muslim population under the guise of countering extremism.
Operation Luxor stands as a cautionary tale of how populist policies can lead to systemic injustice, eroding the very values of freedom and equality that they purport to protect. The ongoing legal and political battles surrounding the operation are a stark reminder that injustices against Muslims at the institutional level in Austria is still existent.
