The Austrian leader will put the issue on the agenda of the upcoming EU summit. He said he was in contact with French President Emmanuel Macron and “many other government leaders so that we can coordinate more closely within the EU.”

The gunman in Monday’s shooting rampage in central Vienna was named as 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, with North Macedonian and Austrian citizenship. He had been convicted on terror-related charges in April 2019 for attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State, but secured an early release in December.

Chancellor Kurz said that anti-Semitism could  not be ruled out as a possible motive.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called on the European Union to do more to fight “political Islam”, which he said represented a grave threat to European values.

“The EU must focus much more strongly on the problem of political Islam in the future,” Kurz said in an interview with German daily Die Welt after four people were killed when Islamist gunmen opened fire at six locations in central Vienna on Monday. Twenty-two people were wounded in the attacks, including one of the police officers responding to the incident.  The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

“I hope we will see an end to this misunderstood tolerance and that all countries in Europe will finally realise how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life.

Kurz said the EU “must, with utmost determination and unity, wage a war against Islamist terror, but particularly against its political base, that is to say political Islam.”

The Chancellor said he would put the issue on the agenda of the upcoming EU summit. He said he was in contact with French President Emmanuel Macron and “many other government leaders so that we can coordinate more closely within the EU.”

Germany and France have said they want the EU to cooperate more closely in the fight against terrorism, particularly when it comes to a more open exchange of intelligence information.

According to a joint Franco-German statement, the EU should take stronger joint action against terrorism.

In the statement, German and French Interior Ministers Horst Seehofer and Gérald Darmanin announced that the German EU presidency would put the topic on the agenda of an EU interior ministers’ meeting set for 13 November.

Who is the Vienna Islamist gunman ?

The gunman was named as 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, with North Macedonian and Austrian citizenship. He had been convicted on terror-related charges in April 2019 for attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State, but secured an early release in December.

Fejzulai, who was armed with an assault rifle, handguns and a machete, and who was wearing a fake explosive vest, was shot dead by police, who arrived at the scene within minutes.

Eighteen house searches have been conducted and 14 people arrested in connection with the attack, according to police.

Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said that additional shooters could not yet be ruled out.

The Islamic State terror group which claimed responsibility for the attack, issued a a picture and video purporting to show the gunman. The statement identified the attacker as “Abu Dagnah al-Albany.”

In the photo, Albany is armed with a handgun, an automatic rifle and a machete, and is wearing a ring stamped with the message “Mohammed is the messenger of Allah,” according to the report.

In the video, “Albany” pledges allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi.

Associated Press (AP) quoted Austrian Interior Minister Nehammer as saying, “The fact is that the terrorist managed to deceive the judicial system’s deradicalization program” to secure his release. He also said that an attempt to strip Fejzulai of his Austrian citizenship had failed for lack of evidence and called for a reform of the system, according to the report.

In an interview with Israel Hayom, Chancellor Kurz said that anti-Semitism could  not be ruled out as a possible motive. “The attacker swore allegiance to ISIS and the attack began right in front of a synagogue. No Jews were hurt, but the starting point of the attack, right in front of a synagogue, doesn’t allow us to rule out an anti-Semitic motive,“ the Austrian leader said.