Radicalised Islam: Europe scrambles to neutralise threat

Austria's parliament on Wednesday passed a law banning foreign sources of financing to Muslim organisations and requiring imams to be able to speak German, in a move closely watched by other European nations facing growing problems with radical Islam.

The new law aims to promote what conservative Integration Minister Sebastian Kurz calls an "Islam of European character" by muting the influence of foreign Muslim nations, organisations and funding at a time when concerns are rising about the spread of extremist Islam.

The legislation also offers Austrian Muslims a mix of increased rights and obligations in practising their faith in the central European country.

But the law has generated opposition from several quarters, including Austrian Muslim groups that call it "discrimination" that imposes restrictions on Islam that other religions aren't saddled with.

The two-year-old bill passed by parliament Wednesday predates the recent jihadist violence in France and Denmark, but is designed to "clearly combat" the growing influence of radical Islam, Kurz said.

The new law will be studied by Austria's neighbours.

Earlier this month French Prime Minister Manuel Valls raised the notion of banning foreign funding of Islamic organisations. Kurz says officials in Germany and Switzerland have also expressed interest in the legislation.

 Meanwhile, France set out a package of reforms on Wednesday aimed at better integrating Muslims and preventing radicalisation in the wake of the recent jihadist attacks in Paris.

It outlined plans to set up a "dialogue forum", tapping leading associations, intellectuals and other notable figures from the Muslim community for regular talks with the government.

Much of the focus will be on the training of Muslim preachers, trying to "encourage the emergence of a generation of imams fully engaged in the Republic", an interior ministry source said.

Radicalisation in prisons is also central to the reform efforts.

France's strict secularity laws make it illegal to count people by their religion or ethnicity, but a report on prisons by an opposition MP last year estimated that 60 percent of the prison