Profile of Austria
Education (preschool, primary and secondary school, university level)
Preschool in German “Kindergarten/Hort” there are around 5 in Vienna (Wien), all of them are leaded by muslim people for muslim children.
Religious education happens in the primary, secondary, polytechnic secondary and special schools. The subject at school is called “Islamic Religion” and used to be offered since 25 years. Nearly 40.000 pupils from 900 schools are taught by 300 teachers; sometimes the teachers have to circle around in different schools, sometimes even the pupils have to visit other schools special for these lessons. Pupils in primary schools get one hour a week, the other schools with older pupils offer 2 hours a week.
In 1998 started the pedagogy education in the official “IRPA”, the Islamic Religious Pedagogy Academy. The conditions to become an official student are
- Good knowledge in German
- Good knowledge in Arabic
- Abitur/Matura certification (“graduation diploma”) or equivalence
The official study takes 6 Semesters; if a student does not dispose about one of the 3 mentioned points he/she has to visit different preparation courses until he/she reaches all 3 suppositions. In the end the students get the title “Diploma-Pedagogue for Islamic Religion”
Hijab
Pupils have no problems to visit schools with hijab.
Nearly every female student, who studies Islamic Religion for schools, wears a hijab, accounting to the fact, that she becomes a teacher for muslim pupils and she tries to be a good example. First they have to be nominated by the Official Islamic Community (IGGiÖ = Islamische Religionsgemeinschaft in Österreich) before they are staffed by the Austrian State (SSR = City School Council).
Special in Vienna it belongs to the normal city impression to meet everywhere muslim women with hijab, nobody take care of them.
Sports
Austria with his special history of official acceptance of Islam since 1913 has a long story of edicts with accepted Religions, so even in matters of sports exist an edict which admits muslim pupils to enjoy sports in unison with their islamic ideas. But the safety regulation makes it necessary to abdicate any kind of needles, so the hijab has to be confirmed with two hoses of headscarfs without needles.
Army, prisons and hospitals
In bigger places – like Vienna – there are good conditions for soldiers. They have a place to pray – sometimes even a mosque, in the month of Ramadan they have special conditions during the fasting-day (including halal-food) and ‘Id-holidays. What they need to make a draft on those mentioned conditions is to go to the Official Islamic Community (IGGiÖ) to get a certification about “Strictly believer”.
Honorary Islamic social workers look after prisoners and ill people in hospitals; the resonance is very good, they are needed, but until now this work is not paid. It is an idea of the future to establish new jobs like “Military-Imam”.
Public Institutions
It is allowed to enter public institutions with hijab. If you look for places to pray you should not disturb other people. Normally muslim people know their places where they can pray. If any public institution is frequented in a high level by muslims – for example the Pädagogy Academie of the Austrian Federation in Vienna teach in all subjects of human science the muslim students of the IRPA who become a teacher of Islamic religion at school – they usual offer a place, where muslim people can pray.
Work (prayer, hijab)
Until now there is no possibility for prayer-study in Austria. If somebody has studied this in foreign countries (for example Turkey or Egypt etc.), he can get an acceptance by the Official Islamic Community (IGGiÖ) to be an imam even in Austria.
Women with hijab in general working life are very seldom, except at school: Most of the hijab wearing women are working like a teacher of Islamic religion subject in different public schools.
Legal pluralism
Legal pluralism is legal manifested in Austria. Accounting for the aspect that the Catholic Church posed a solid and stable position with a lot of contracts with the state, so also the other accepted Religion Communities enjoy nearly the same rights, because the State does not want to make differences.
Imam training
In Austria does not exist any kind of Imam Training up to now.
Representation of Muslims
All Muslims in Austria are automatically represented by the IGGiÖ (the “Official Islamic Community in Austria”). The constitution (German: “Verfassung”) of this Community with all their committees and special tasks in original language (German) you can read or download in the internet under www.derislam.at (Then click the word “Verfassung”)
Contact adress
IGGiÖ (Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich)
Bernardgasse 5
1070 Wien
Tel.: 0043 – 1 – 526 31 22
Fax: 0043 – 1 – 52 63 12 24
E-Mail: info@derislam.at