ABSTRACT
The Muslim community is one of the largest and most important religious communities in Austria today. With about 338,000 Muslim believers, Islam ranks third after the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches in terms of its adherents. 2 At least two features distinguish Austria and Islam in Austria, both in terms of its history and its current aspects, from the situation in other European countries. The first aspect is the legal recognition of Islam granted by the Austrian state in 1874 on the basis of which the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IRCA) was officially recognized as a legal, corporate body in 1979. 3 This official recognition has a number of implications as far as representation and integration into Austrian society at large, but also the Muslim community itself are concerned. The second aspect is related to the history of Islam in Austria that is dominated by the political and legal aspects of, and images created, by the Austro-Hungarian Empire's encounter with Bosnia until the First World War and beyond, and by the patterns of immigration from former Yugoslavia and Turkey. Muslims from former Yugoslavia and Turkey have contributed to the pluralist picture and complex structures of Islam in Austria. Mainly Turkish Muslim communities, their socio-political networks have both challenged the established setting and contributed to it constructively. 4
