Austria's Government Fires Muslim Religion Teacher for Anti-Semitism

Austrian Times reports that last Thursday the country's Education Minister Claudia Schmied ordered Vienna's city school council to dismiss a Muslim man who is currently teaching a course in religion at the city's Cooperative Secondary School. The teacher was charged with distribution anti-Semitic leaflets to his students, urging them to boycott a list of "Jewish firms." Usually teachers of religion in public schools are appointed by their religious denominations, but Schmied said that minister of education has legal authority to intervene when religious teachers violate their legal obligations.