Thread by @shadihamid

1. This is important, so please share far and wide. The well-known Austrian professor @ferithafez has just gone public what happened to him. On Nov. 9, 2020, the Austrian government raided his home at 5am, with police breaking down the door and aiming guns at him and his family

2. Farid was accused of supporting terrorism and his assets frozen. Farid has been a leading voice against Islamophobia. During interrogation, instead of asking about terrorism, they asked him if he prayed and whether he thought Muslims were discriminated against in Austria

3. Other questions police asked him during interrogation: 'Is your wife allowed to go to the supermarket?' and 'do your kids play any music instruments?' It's not too difficult to read between the lines.

https://twitter.com/ferithafez/status/1366367485709189121

4. I don't fully understand how this is possible in #Austria, but there is no actual indictment against Farid. He hasn't been detained. Yet the state prosecutor has *3 years* to file a charge. So, for up to 3 years, @ferithafez has to live with his bank accounts frozen

5. Austrian intelligence conducted surveillance on Farid and 29 other individuals for one and a half years and ended up with 21,000 hours of material. Yet, after all that, they couldn't come up with anything to charge Farid with

6. The search warrant against Farid has some ludicrous "allegations." He is cited as supporting the establishment of a private religious school. Also, he spoke to a political party leader and criticized the Austrian government's establishment of the Observatory on Political Islam

7. Then you have the standard allegations which are leveled against pretty much every Muslim in public life in the West. @ferithafez is accused of pledging allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood. This is based on an alleged "informant" who isn't even named in the search warrant

8. (It's not clear why the Muslim Brotherhood is relevant in the first place, since according to the Austrian government itself, the EU, and other EU member states, the Brotherhood isn't a terrorist organization)

9. The search warrant also "accuses" Farid of supporting the toppling of the Sissi regime in Egypt, which is apparently a crime in Austria now

10. Not only are @ferithafez's assets frozen, the case is likely to take a long time—and seems designed precisely with this in mind. If the case lasts 3 or more years, Farid may have to foot a legal bill of around 100,000 euros, despite having no access to his own funds

11. In short, the Austrian government is attempting to intimidate, punish, and bankrupt one of the most prominent and visible Austrian Muslims in the country—and one of the government's most outspoken critics—despite having nothing to charge him on

12. I don't know GW's Lorenzo Vidino well, but we've always been friendly. He's on the advisory board of the Austrian government's recently established "Observatory on Political Islam." One hopes he might defend Farid's religious freedom in discussions with Austrian authorities

13. Lorenzo Vidino wrote a @foreignpolicy piece where he discussed the context around the #Austria raids. The whole article is both informative and chilling and is well worth reading, especially now: foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/11/aus…

14. Austria might claim it is cracking down on "Islamists," but the word is defined so loosely, or not at all, that any observant Muslim speaking out against anti-Muslim bigotry and criticizing the government can find themselves under surveillance, or worse

15. Here is @ferithafez's thread from earlier this morning, discussing his situation and what his family has had to go through. Follow him and spread the word:

https://twitter.com/ferithafez/status/1366367479853891591

16. And here is a short video on @ferithafez's case with additional details about what happened on November 9, 2020