Country Report on Islamization: Austria
Counterjihad Brussels 2007

 

Presentation by Elizabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

Good afternoon, distinguished speakers, ladies and gentlemen!

Austria is unique among Western European countries insofar as it has granted Muslims the status of a recognized religious community. This dates back to the times following Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Austria has regulated the religious freedoms of the Muslim community with the so-called “Anerkennungsgesetz” (”Act of Recognition”). This law was expanded and elaborated in 1912 with the so-called Law on Islam. This law, in turn, was reactivated in 1979 when the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich) was founded and given the status of a religious organization and public corporation[i].

This Act of Recognition has led to the following privileges:

• Unlimited exercise of religious freedom within in the limits of the current jurisdiction of the Federal Constitutional Court.
• Religious instruction in schools for free as mandated by federal law.
• The Republic is obliged to provide instructional material and to finance religious instructors.
• The Republic has no influence on teaching personnel selection as well as content of religious curriculum, which was last updated in 1983 and includes the portrayal of the replacement of a non-Muslim with a Muslim society.
• In 1989, a change to the federal law on Islam was passed, clarifying which religious schools in Islam were to be accepted and covered by the Law on Islam. Until then, only the Bosnian Hanefa school of jurisprudence had been accepted.

Recognition is not only limited to formal equal treatment of symbols and rituals; it is also a material right -, hence the public funding of religious institutions. A further significant pillar of recognition is dialogue between State authorities and faith organizations.[ii]

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[i] Rosenberger, “Governing Religious Diversity in Austria - A Framework for Europe?”, paper presented at the Symposium “Small States in a Global World”, April 7, 2006, Harvard University.

[ii] Rosenberger, “Governing Religious Diversity in Austria - A Framework for Europe?”, paper presented at the Symposium “Small States in a Global World”, April 7, 2006, Harvard University.

Do see the rest of this report - the scope and attention to telling details are great…