Austrian Right-Wing Activists Stage Mock Beheading of Migrant Advocates

A far-right Austrian group staged a mock beheading in Vienna’s busiest shopping street of two of its members holding “refugees welcome” signs, while several police officers watched the event, saying they were protecting the right of assembly.

A video posted online this week, which said the display was by the anti-immigrant Identitarian group, shows two masked men dressed in military fatigues pretending to behead a man and a woman.

At least four police officers and dozens of shoppers look on as jihadist chants in English fill the street and other masked men hold a flag sporting Islamic-style Arabic writing.

Austria’s anti-Islam Freedom Party is ahead of the two ruling centrist parties, according to recent opinion polls, with just over 30 percent support after a boost from worries over immigration in the staunchly Catholic country.

“These people who shout ‘refugees welcome’ . . . are to blame for the danger we’re exposed to in Europe now,” says one man, addressing the crowd in the video.

“They speak of diversity, but what we see is foreign infiltration and Islamisation. We are the power that defends Austrian values and traditions. We will continue until our homeland is secure. Fortress Europe, shut the borders!”

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