Muslim Imam Chants Koran Verses During Interreligious Service at Austrian Cathedral

It’s the ‘new normal’ in Novus Ordo Land…

Muslim Imam Chants Koran Verses During Interreligious Service at Austrian Cathedral

© Land Steiermark/Robert Binder (cropped)

A terrible tragedy occurred in Austria ten days ago: “A former pupil killed 10 people and himself at a secondary school in Austria’s second [largest] city, Graz, on Tuesday in the worst school shooting in Austria’s modern history”, Reuters reported on June 10, 2025.

Graz is the capital of the Austrian state of Styria. The official state memorial service was of the interreligious kind, of course, and was held at the local Roman Catholic cathedral on June 17. It is currently occupied by the Neo-Modernist layman Wilhelm Krautwaschl (b. 1963), who has been playing Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of Graz-Seckau since his appointment by ‘Pope’ Francis in 2015.

“Relatives of the victims, representatives of religious communities, and politicians from the federal, state, and city governments gathered in Graz Cathedral for the official state memorial service”, the diocesan news portal summarized, and then elaborated as follows:

The spiritual part of the memorial service was conducted jointly by Diocesan Bishop Wilhelm Krautwaschl, Superintendent Wolfgang Rehner, Imam Sakib Zekan, as well as Mehmet Celebi, Chairman of the Islamic Religious Community of Styria, using readings from the Bible and the Koran.

(“Interreligiöse Gedenkfeier: ‘Miteinander in die Zukunft gehen'”, Katholische Kirche Steiermark, June 18, 2025; translation via DeepL.com.)

The entire ceremony was broadcast live on Austrian state television channel ORF III. The full video is available here. Individual photographs can be viewed here (from the state government) and here (from the diocese).

Most conspicuous was the chanting of Koran verses by the imam mentioned, Sakib Zekan. Here is a 2-minute recording of the Islamic chant, originally published on Twitter/X by the account ‘RadioGenoa’:

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The Koran is recited, sung, in a Roman Catholic cathedral!

Alas, what would have been an unspeakable scandal even in 1985 won’t raise eyebrows anymore in 2025. Graz Cathedral, dedicated to St. Giles, was originally built in the 15th century for the proper Christian worship of the Most Holy Trinity, not for ‘interfaith’ events with those who reject Christ and His Sacrifice.

Fr. Michael Müller in his 1880 book The Church and her Enemies describes the true Catholic position well when he says: “It is impious to say, ‘I respect every religion.’ This is as much as to say: I respect the devil as much as God, vice as much as virtue, falsehood as much as truth, dishonesty as much as honesty, Hell as much as Heaven” (p. 287).

According to a YouTube-generated transcript and an AI-based translation from the Arabic, what the imam chanted was the following:

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

So remember Me, and I will remember you.
And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me.

O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer.
Indeed, Allah is with the patient.

And do not say about those who are killed in the way of Allah, “They are dead.”
Rather, they are alive, but you do not perceive it.

And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth, lives, and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient.

Those who, when disaster strikes them, say, “Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.”

This appears to be from sura 2:152-156 in the Koran.

Even if someone wants to argue that the chanted verses do not contain anything egregious, the fact remains that they are from the Muslim Koran (also spelled Qur’an), which is a book from hell, written by a false prophet, that contains unspeakable blasphemies and heresies.

The fact that ‘Pope’ John Paul II publicly kissed it, says nothing about the Koran but lots about the false pope: It was a kiss of betrayal, the kiss of Judas (cf. Lk 22:47-48; Mt 10:33). For ‘Pope’ Francis to denounce its burning, was likewise rather telling.

The Egyptian Novus Ordo Jesuit and expert on Islam, Rev. Samir Kahil Samir, has warned against whitewashing the Muslim holy book:

All the Christian dogmas are rejected by the Koran and Islam.

The figure of Christ as the second person of the Trinity is condemned. In the Koran it says explicitly to Christians: “O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not ‘Three’ – Cease! (it is) better for you! – Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty…” (Koran 4:171). These verses against the Trinity are very clear and need no interpretation.

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Finally, the Koran negates Redemption. It even says that Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross, but it was a look-alike: “And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them” (Koran 4:157) . In this way God saved Jesus from the wickedness of the Jews. But then Christ did not save the world!

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The Koran mentions Jesus because it aims to complete the revelation of Christ to exalt Muhammad. Besides, seeing what Jesus and Mary do in the Koran, we notice that it is no more than apply the prayers and fasting according to the Koran. Mary is certainly the most beautiful figure among all those presented in the Koran: she is the Virgin Mother, whom no man has ever touched. But she can not be the Theotokos; instead she is a good Muslim.

(Samir Khalil Samir, “Pope Francis and his invitation to dialogue with Islam”, Asia News, Dec. 19, 2013)

Under Krautwaschl’s leadership, the diocese of Graz-Seckau sent out a prayer to the “god of diversities” last year as part of its Lenten program. Furthermore, the diocese hosts an annual ‘sports pilgrimage’, with a corresponding ‘Eucharistic celebration’ (see the one from 2022 here), and is proud of this ‘artistic’ defacing of a chapel in one of its churches.

In 2018, Krautwaschl was in the news approving of and joining in the celebration of sexual perversions known as ‘Christopher Street Day’, a famous European ‘gay pride’ event. As the aberrosexual festivity happened to coincide with the 800th anniversary of the diocese, he was happy to observe both together: “We’re not just celebrating at the same time, we’re celebrating together, because love is what matters most”, the anti-Catholic pseudo-bishop remarked brilliantly to the press. He added: “It is also important to apologize. Christians should ask for forgiveness for having supported wrong decisions.”

For ‘Bp.’ Krautwaschl to allow an interreligious service to take place in ‘his’ cathedral, therefore, is simply par for the course.

By the way: The same thing as at the cathedral of Graz also took place at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna on June 12. There, too, a Muslim imam chanted Koran verses as part of an interconfessional memorial service (beginning at 16:46 min mark):

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The host of that event was the Austrian Bishops’ Conference as a whole, we might add.

What was once unthinkable even for Novus Ordo churches has established itself as the ‘new normal’ now. Alas, the world is spiraling out of control ever faster and is coming ever closer to the advent of the Antichrist — and it wouldn’t have been possible without Vatican Council II and its abominable opening to other religions.

Again and again, the Vatican II religion places man before God and gives priority to the rights of man over those of God. As Pope Leo XIII observed as far back as Nov. 1, 1900: “The world has heard enough of the so-called ‘rights of man.’ Let it hear something of the rights of God” (Encyclical Tametsi, n. 13).

There is also an apocalyptic element to this, for, as Pope St. Pius X warned, making special reference to 2 Thessalonians 2: “…this according to [St. Paul] is the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, [that] man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God…” (Encyclical E Supremi, n. 5).

The Vatican II religion has eclipsed God and put man in His stead.

Image source: Land Steiermark/Robert Binder
License: with permission