Another European politician lashed out against Muslims on Sunday. This is simply the latest example of a growing trend of rhetoric directed against European immigrants, particularly Muslims.

Susanne Winter, an Austrian running for a Graz city council office, made headlines for saying it is time for Islam to be “thrown back where it came from, behind the Mediterranean.” She added that Mohammed would be considered a “child molester” in modern society and said he wrote the Koran in “epileptic fits.”

In an interview published on Monday, Winter warned that a “tsunami of Muslim immigration” would make Austria half Muslim within 30 years and said that child abuse by Muslim men is “widespread.”

Some of Winter’s campaign posters feature her face, a traditional Austrian building, and the slogan “Don’t give radical Islam a home.” The posters also feature the insignia of Winter’s far-right Freedom Party, made famous several years ago by neo-fascist Jörg Haider, who openly praised Hitler’s policies and Nazism.

Another recent example, and one of many from Germany, comes from Hesse Governor Ronald Koch, who has made “criminal young foreigners” and “Leitkultur” (leading culture) his re-election battle cry.

“We have spent too long showing a strange sociological understanding for groups that consciously commit violence as ethnic minorities,” Koch said.

For his part, Koch is not appealing to the German fringe. A 2006 Bielefeld University study found almost 60 percent of Germans agreeing or strongly agreeing that there are too many foreign residents in Germany.

Meanwhile, former Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber is not far removed from the equation. The current European Commission adviser holds ultra-conservative views, has used anti-immigrant rhetoric repeatedly in the past, and he is on good terms with Haider.

As the Muslim immigrant problem intensifies, watch for anti-immigrant and especially anti-Muslim rhetoric to gain increasing traction among European voters and most of all within the halls of European power. For more on this subject, read “Germany: Clash of Civilizations Already Underway.”