Islam and Muslims in Austria

Introduction

When one thinks of Austria and its relations with Islam and Muslims, what comes first to the mind of most people will perhaps be the famous Ottoman Siege of Vienna in 1683 (although many tend to forget that the Turks had “visited” the Danube metropolis already in 1529, with a similar negative outcome for them). For Europeans, or at least for those among them who are still aware of their own history and culture, the year 1683 means something of a watershed: from that time onward “the Turk” was relentlessly driven back from Central and Southeast Europe (Marcinkowski 1997). Also, to some more conservative-minded Europeans this event might also mean something like a revenge for the “lost” Crusades of the Middle Ages. At least it signified triumph over a centuries-old foe.

Austria, or what was left of it after the First World War, features today a comparatively large immigrant community of Muslims with various ethnic backgrounds – among them Turks, Albanians of various nationality, and Bosnians, in short from countries that once were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Habsburgs (Hauptmann 1995, 2nd ed.). The circumstance of the presence of a large Muslim immigrant community in the country does not set apart the alpine republic from other industrialized societies in Western Europe. Especially Germany with its millions of Turks might come to mind.

What does set Austria apart, however, is the manner in which it deals with “its” Muslims – and this already since 1912, the year when the Islamgesetze (lit. “Islam legislation”) (Potz 2010) came into force – i.e. at a time when the Balkan Wars created havoc and chaos in Southeast Europe, serving as a text case for the Great War of 1914-18. Here we see a country– although rather multi-religious but with a staunchly Catholic monarchy at the top – granting the Muslim minority within its borders clearly defined rights, rather than seeing in them something like a “fifth column” that cannot be trusted. In consequence, the Great War saw the Empire’s Muslims fighting loyally side by side with their Christian comrades-in-arms for the Monarchy.

Even Austria’s various post-WWI political republican settings did not touch upon the 1912 legislation, and recently Austria could commemorate the first century of its coming into force. Today, Austria is unique among Western European countries insofar as it has granted Muslims the status of a recognized religious community.

In the following, we shall have a glance at the presence of Islam in present-day Austria by providing some basic information as to historical background, structures and legal arrangements.

More than 100 Years of Official Recognition of Islam

In the beginning were the Islamgesetze… Already several weeks before the annexation in 1908 of formerly Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bauer 1971; Balic 1995) representatives of the Muslims living in Vienna tried to find out from the Austrian authorities whether there would be any intention from their part to grant official recognition for the Muslim faith throughout the Habsburg Empire. Soon after, the building of a first mosque in Vienna was asked for, an idea which was also supported by the then mayor of Vienna – perhaps also after taking into consideration the economic advantages of such a move in the light of the capital city’s trade with visiting Muslim entrepreneurs and the foreign relations with the Ottoman Empire. Eventually, together with Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans would be allies during the Great War.

As mentioned earlier, the Islamgesetze survived the Great War and were carried over into the First Republic. During the post-WWI period, several prominent Austrians even converted to Islam, and in 1932 some of them founded the Islamischer Kulturbund (Islamic Cultural Federation). The most famous among those converts was Leopold Weiss (1900-92), perhaps better known to some under his Muslim name Muhammad Asad of The Road to Mecca literary fame (Asad 2002; Windhager 2008, 3rd ed.). In 2008, the square in front of the main entrance to UNO City in Vienna was named “Muhammad Asad Square” in his memory.

Here we shall not dwell much on historical details; suffice it to say that the Islamischer Kulturbund was ultimately dissolved in 1938 by the German Nazis when they occupied Austria to annex it to their “Third Reich” (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 53). It should be added, however, that the Nazis tried to instrumentalize Muslims from the Balkans and elsewhere where the German held sway or had “strategic interests”.

The year 1945 meant also for Austria’s surviving Muslims a new beginning. Conversions still happened from time to time, but it was the mass arrival of Muslim immigrant workers from then-Yugoslavia and Turkey which let to dramatic numerical, social and cultural changes, especially form the 1960s onward – with another influx as a result of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the following wars on the Balkans.

Issues and Challenges

Today, the “Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in ?sterreich” (IGGi?, Islamic Religious Community in Austria) enjoys the official status of a statutory corporation (K?rperschaft des ?ffentlichen Rechts) as an acknowledged religious community (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 55). With this, the organization belongs now firmly to the group of 14 communities which include religious communities and churches – from the large ones, like the Roman Catholic Church, to the smaller ones, among them the Evangelical-Methodist Church or Jehova’s Witnesses.

However, there were ups and downs in terms of the application for official recognition – especially when considering the scope of recognition (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 55-56). In Austria, official legal recognition requires from the respective religious community that it accepts the democratic and constitutional order of the Republic. This includes, of course, also conformity with the basic social consensus and human rights. With regard to Islam, this seems to amount to the challenge to accept the role as a statutory corporation within a western pluralistic political order that is based on constitutional law. Therefore the often raised question as to the compatibility of Islam with such a state can be considered as answered affirmatively.

Such a legal arrangement includes the offer by the Austrian state for a cooperation, which, however, also means that the religious communities must be ready to fulfil the constitutional expectations of the Republic. The state can therefore expect from those communities certain contributions toward the solution of ethical issues that might arise in society. This would include cooperation in the educational and charity sectors or in terms of pastoral work to the sick and imprisoned, as well as assistance to the handicapped and similar alike.

The massive influx of international Muslim students, refugees, diplomats and workers, especially the national capital Vienna, from the middle of the 1960s onward led to increased efforts to achieve the longed for institutional recognition, a special characteristic of the Austrian legislation vis-à-vis religious communities. In January 1971 first application was made by a Muslim welfare organization in Vienna (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 56).

After extensive negotiations an official application was finally made in 1979. During the eight years that led to the official application, several technical and legal problems had to be overcome. In the end, the settings that were used in Bosnia were taken over by Austria. Finally, in April 1979, the aforementioned IGGi? was founded and acknowledged by the Austrian state (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 56 and 270 n. 22).

Quite surprisingly, in the course of the negotiations leading to the recognition the issue of polygamy was raised again as “bigamy” is punishable by law in Austria. The Austrian authorities even referred to Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the highest authority in the world of Sunni Islam. They also contacted Diyanet, the state-run office for religious affairs in Turkey. Those two authorities replied by stating that a Muslim would have no right to claim the “right” to polygamy in a non-Muslim state (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 56).

Another issue which had to be solved was that the old Islamgesetz of the Austrian-Hungarian period acknowledged only the Sunni Hanafi rite (madhhab) which would cause problems with regard to Islam’s other “legal schools”. Again, Diyanet was asked what could be done. From Turkey came the reply that all “legal schools” of Islam should be acceptable, explicitly mentioning the remaining three Sunni ones, i.e. the Shafi’is, Malikis and Hanbalis, but not referring the Shi’ites. The Austrian authorities accepted this interpretation from Turkey. The applicants, however, had also asked to include Twelver Shi’ites, Zaydis and Ibadhis (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 56-57).

In 1987, Austria’s Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof) declared the previous focus on things Hanafi in the 1912 Islamgesetze as not conform to the Constitution of the Republic. The Court did so not only in order to preserve freedom of worship and religious confession, but also since the secular Austrian state should maintain neutrality in matters of religion, be it Christian, Muslim or otherwise. Since then IGGi? has changed its own constitution and recognizes now all Muslims living within the borders of the Republic.

The IGGi? serves now as the umbrella organization of many Islamic associations in Austria, but not all Muslims in the country are members of those organizations. This is similar to the situation in neighbouring Germany and other European countries. Thus even if IGGi? acknowledges Austria’s constitutional order, his say nothing about the approaches of those who are not members.

IGGi? is entitled to provide lessons of religious education in state schools (Khorchide 2009; Potz 2003; Kalb, Potz, and Schinkele 2003). It is also allowed to collect "church tax" but so far it has not exercised this privilege and does not build, finance or administer mosques in Austria. In 2013, Austria has granted the status of a recognized religious community also to Alevism.

Another issue is the somewhat restricted reach of the IGGi? as Muslims in Austria are not required to be members. As a matter of fact, among religions in Austria, Roman Catholic Christianity is predominant. According to the 2001 census, 73.6% of the country's population adhered to this denomination. As of 2012, the most recent year for which figures are available, the number of Catholics has dropped to about 63.5% of the population. There is a much smaller group of Lutherans, totalling about 4.7% of the population in 2001, 3.8% in 2012. Since the 2001 census these two historically dominant religious groups in Austria recorded losses in the number of adherents. The Roman Catholic Church reported a drop of ~10%, the Lutheran Church of ~1%. In contrast, the number of Muslims in Austria has increased in recent years, and with 4.2% of the population calling themselves Muslim in 2001, up to around 5% to 6.2% in 2010. In 2010, it was estimated to be around 400,000 to 500,000 Muslims in Austria, or up to about 6% of the total population (Euro-Islam.Info 2013). However, the IGGi? has direct access only to 40-50,000 Muslims, as not all of Austria’s Muslims are members, as just mentioned (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012). There is also the issue of “identity and religion. It is a matter of fact that for many migrants – not only Muslims – religion and ethnic identity are often intermingled or even confused with each other. The same can be said about “traditions”, many of those, are actually in blatant contrast to the original teachings of Islam.

Within this complicated context, one cannot estimate high enough the contributions made by the IGGi? in terms of integration of Muslims into Austrian majority society, whereby “integration” wouldn’t necessarily mean “assimilation”. Time will tell whether the Austrian model of participation will be crowned by success as the Austrian authorities would have to continue their support for this promising project also in the future.

Recent Developments

The IGGi? did make some efforts to improve this situation, even on the European level. Upon the initiative of the IGGi? and with the support of the Austrian state, so-called “conferences of imams” (Imamkonferenzen) had been organized, the first one in 2003 with international participation in Graz (Austria), and the following ones in Vienna in 2006 and 2010. In between there had been an Austrian Imamkonferenz in Vienna in 2005. During those meetings a host of religiously and politically relevant topics had been discussed and several remarkable statements were published (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012).

The 2003 conference in Graz addressed the situation of the Muslims in Europe and advocated an individual European identity. Other topics discussed had been democracy human rights and pluralism, all with recourse to classical Islamic theology and contemporary interpretations. Moreover, the issue of Islam’s relations with other religious communities was discussed.

Very interesting was the debate on a special interpretation of Islamic law for Muslims living in a minority situation (fiqh al-aqalliyat) (Albrecht 2010) as well as moderation and the “middle path” in Islamic religious practice (al-wasatiyyah) (Kamali 2008; 2010) and a distancing from any form of extremism and fanaticism.

The 2006 Vienna meeting addressed issues regarding putting things into practice in order to increase the public acceptance by majority non-Muslims of Muslims living in Europe. Muslims had been asked to understand themselves as integral part of European societies, a very encouraging step forward to the mind of this writer. Even issues concerning the ecological environment had been discussed at the conference.

Up to the 2006 meeting Shi’ites had not been invited. This changed in 2010 when Shiites were explicitly welcomed. On this meeting imams had been asked to engage also in social work for the wider good of society. They should also acquaint themselves with the cultures of their host countries. In the centre was a call for more active participation for the sake of the further development of European societies at large.

In Austria, there exists now a variety of Islamic organizations, most of them members of the IGGi?, but some of them not. Common to all of them is, that most of them has somewhat lost contact to the second and third generations of immigrants. The decreased interest in religion as such seems to be a general feature especially of the third generation. Therefore, it is increasingly difficult to describe the present situation of Islam in Austria as we notice an increasing trend toward “individualized religiosity” among Muslims in Austria.

The Turkish mosque associations in Austria are organized under the umbrella of ATIB, which in turn is a branch of the already mentioned official Turkish Office for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in Ankara. Its President is the attaché for religious affairs at the Turkish embassy in Vienna. Current around 60 associations are member in ATIB, whose main task consists in facilitating networking. ATIB is basically culturally and religiously oriented rather than politically. Within the IGGi?, ATIB has a leading position.

Less organized are Austria’s Bosnian Muslims, who are already a long-time feature of the country, due to its Austrian-Hungarian past, as mentioned initially. All of them are financed by private donations and most of them are in line with the religious administration (Rijaset) of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its head Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric, who is often in Austria for visiting the Bosniak communities. The Bosnian Muslims understand themselves as truly European Muslims – rightly so – due to the location of their home country and their recent history. After the end of the Bosnian civil war, however, many of them emphasize now the importance of religious identity over the cultural background.

Of special interest is the “Islamic Federation of Vienna” (IFW, Mill? G?rü?, lit. “National Vision”) (Schiffauer 2004 and 2010; Amir-Moazami 2010), one of the leading Turkish diaspora organizations in Europe, since the new IGGi?-president comes from their ranks. They differ from ATIB as they consider Islam as something which doesn’t end at the doors of the mosques but as a lifestyle to be observed in society. They have a strong focus on social work with the youth and women. Other Muslims, however, consider IFW as quite ethnocentrically closed up organization catering for the needs of ethnic Turks only. Within IGGi?, the IFW will surely continue to play an important role as the majority of Muslims living in Austria happen to be Turks and as Turkey itself is ruled by the religiously oriented AKP-government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdo?an.

There are also several other Muslim associations in Austria which have a background Sufism (al-tasawwuf) or Islamic mysticism. Here shall be mentioned only the Süleymanci movement (Wunn 2007: 54 ff.), named after its founder Süleyman Hilmi Tunahan (1888-1959). They too are involved in social work with the youth and women. A special characteristic of the Süleymancis is their origins in the Naqshbandi movement of Sunni Sufism, the founder of which was Baha al-Din Naqshband (d. 1389 in Central Asia) (Kabbani 2012). Like the Naqshbandi Sufi order (tariqah), the Süleymancis too practice in the religious assemblies the dhikr, literally “remembrance”, an Islamic devotional act, typically involving the recitation—mostly silently - of the Names of God, and of supplications taken from hadith texts and Qur'anic verses.

Leaving for while Sunni Islam, Austria is also home to Twelver Shi’ites (Marcinkowski 2010: 19-47), mostly from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and, to a lesser extent, from Azerbaijan and the Indian subcontinent. The “Imam Ali Centre” in Vienna, headed by the Austrian convert Hujjat al-Islam Muhammad Waldmann, caters mostly for Iranians and can be considered close to the Islamic Republic of Iran and its political direction. Shi’ite immigration to Austria increased especially after the 1979 revolution in Iran, the fall of the Saddam regime in Iraq and the various conflicts in Lebanon. As mentioned earlier, there had been certain tensions with the Sunni dominated IGGi? in terms of a lack of Shiite representation, but now both are involved in dialogue in order to clear the way of closer cooperation.

It is quite remarkable with regard to the current state of integration the Shiites into Austrian society, that the official opening of Vienna Airport’s Terminal 3 Check-In on 21 June 2012, was not only attended by Vienna’s mayor and Christian and Jewish religious dignitaries, such as the Rabbi, and leading Catholic and Protestant personnel, but also by Mr. Waldmann, representing Vienna’s Muslims at large. All of them recited blessings according to their particular fashion. Around 200 invited guests had been present at the ceremony (Flughafen Wien 2012). Aside from those rather well integrated Sunni and Shi’ite organizations, however, there are also rather shadowy movements, some of them to be considered quite extremist in their ideology and political outlook. Here mentioned shall be only the Hizb al-Tahrir (lit. “Liberation Party”) (Taji-Farouki 1996) and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egyptian, and, increasingly, also Syrian “fame” (Rubin 2010; Mitchell 1993). Vienna is actually the main seat of Hizb al-Tahrir in the German-speaking countries. Their aim is the revival and re-establishing of a supra-national caliphate in the Islamic lands which is seen as the sole solution of the current problems faced by the Muslims worldwide. Most of the members are well-educated and many of them appear in mosques in order to recruit members to their organization. Austria’s security establishment is currently watching them closely.

From among the non-extremist and rather reformist movements the Gülen is also active in Austria movement (Ebaugh 2012; Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 78-79). Their focus is on a certain rapprochement between tradition Islam and Modernity and on a synthesis between Islam and Turkish-Ottoman heritage. In Austria they publish a German-language edition of their organ, the Zaman newspaper. Through the “Friede-Institute” (Peace Institutes) in Vienna and Innsbruck they are also involved in interreligious dialogue, which includes also contacts to Hinduism and Buddhism.

Turning now our attention from “institutionalized Islam” in Austria and proceeding toward currents of faith and ideology, three phenomena should be considered that can be considered somewhat at the fringes (Sufism) or even outside mainstream Islam (Salafism and Jihadism) as practiced by the majority of Muslims in Austria.

Salafism is a movement among Sunni Muslims named after the Salaf (lit.: "predecessors" or "ancestors"), the earliest Muslims, whom they consider the examples of Islamic practice. Salafism has become associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam. In neighbouring Germany, Salafism has been described as the fastest growing Islamic movement in a 2010 German domestic intelligence service annual report (Al Arabiya News 12 April 2012). Although not all Salafis are prone to violence or even terrorism, at times the borders are often somewhat blurred. In Austria, some of them have tried to undermine the other Islamic organizations with their followers (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 95).

Contrary to Salafism, however, Jihadism (from jihad, commonly translated as "Holy War", but actually meaning "to struggle in the way of Allah") refers to the renewed focus on armed jihad in Islamic fundamentalism since the later 20th century, but with a continuous history reaching back to the early 1800s. "Jihadism" in this sense covers both guerilla warfare and Islamic terrorism with an international scope as it arose from the 1980s, since the 1990s substantially represented by the al-Qaeda network. It has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th century ideological developments of Islamic revivalism. Generally the term jihadism denotes Sunni Islamist armed struggle.

In Austria, in 2007, the so-called “Globale Islamische Medienfront” (GIMF) published video messages against German and Austrian military participation in Afghanistan (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 98). Several activists, such as Mohamed Mahmoud, the former head of the “Islamische Jugend ?sterreich” (Austrian Muslim Youth), were arrested by Austrian authorities and later on sentenced to imprisonment (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 98).

The problem of increasing jihadi tendencies among Muslims in Austria but also in the rest of Europe should perhaps seen not so much through the religious lens. Equally important is the social marginalization of Muslim youths in Western Europe, who often encounter prejudice from the part of the majority population. Many of them didn’t finish their education which causes problems for them to find a job, which in turn, serves as a further obstacle on the way toward full integration into European society. Identity problems add to the severity of the issue. That jihadism in Austria seems to a real problem and not an imagined one became obvious toward the end of 2010/beginning of 2011, when attacks by jihadists on Coptic churches in Egypt caused also preventive security measures from the part of the authorities in Austria as names of Austrian Copts had appeared on jihadi websites (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 100).

Finally, Sufism, the peaceful and mystical branch of Islam. Classical Sufi scholars have defined it as a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God. Muslims and mainstream scholars of Islam define Sufism as simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam (excellent coverage in Schimmel 1975) which is supported and complemented by outward or exoteric practices of Islam, such as Islamic law. Of course, Islamic mysticism belongs now also to mainstream Islam in the sense that its intellectual spiritual tradition is certain part of Islamic tradition at large. What puts it at the fringes of contemporary mainstream Islam in contemporary Austria, as perhaps elsewhere in western Europe, is that the number of its followers today is comparatively smaller that that of, say, the ordinary visitor of a ATIB mosque, many of the latter being employed in “blue collar jobs”.

There are currently no studies on Sufism in Austria, but apparently the Naqshbandi tradition seems to be the fasted growing branch (Heine, Lohlker, and Potz 2012: 96-97). The membership in such a tradition, a tariqah or “order” offers to the members a coherent social network and a spiritual basis in an otherwise completely secularized society like Europe. This writer would even argue that such an “organized Sufism” would even further identity-finding or integration in western society as it focusses on social wellbeing, charity and support of the “Other” – non-Muslims included.

Conclusion: Austria as a Model for Europe?

After this brief overview of a century of official recognition of Islam in Austria, the question arises whether we can speak of an “Austrian model” that should be emulated in other parts of Europe.

This question is difficult to answer as it refers to a variety of levels. As a matter of fact, the Austrian approach has found several supporters, especially in neighbouring Germany, where there exist now even imam-training courses at university-level (in Münster and Osnabrück), and even official recognitions of the level of German federal states, such as Hamburg. It is certainly laudable that, for the first time, there exist now such training programs inside Europe, programs the curricula of which are officially approved by the state. This ensures that the syllabi of such courses are in line with Islamic tradition on the one hand and contemporary European society and its foundations on the other.

However, as far as we can see, Muslims in Austria, the youth in particular, face still the issue of how to preserve religious but especially ethnic identity vis-à-vis the majority non-Muslim European majority population. Legal approaches toward integration are in order but they seem not to reach the grassroots, the ones that are supposed to be integrated. Moreover, the real meaning of “integration” has so far not been transmitted to the Muslims, perhaps since this meaning had not yet been clear to Austria and other western European nations for that matter themselves. Often it seems that “integration” is confused with “assimilation” where one has to give up his or her identity in order to be accepted by a host society. It appears to this writer that both sides have to make a step toward the “Other” in order to be credible.

A problem for host populations in Europe when talking about “integration” is that many if not most Muslim countries do not grant full religious freedom – a human right after all – to their citizens, so the issue of a lack of reciprocity seems to be a main condition in heads of many in Europe.

In addition, many in Europe do not consider their respective countries as immigrant society. International political issues, such as the various conflicts throughout the Middle East and the therewith connected worldview of “principally violent Muslims” or the indeed threatened status of Christians throughout the Muslim world do their part in insuring that Muslims are often not considered welcome in Europe.

On the other hand, however, the steps taken by Austria, especially Islamic religious instruction in schools and the opportunity to study Islamic theology and practice at University level are surely steps into the right direction, steps that are perhaps one day leading toward a truly “European Islam” that is accepted – and accepts itself – as an integral part of this continent.

References

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Further Readings

Bunzl, John, and Hafez, Farid (eds.) (2009) Islamophobie in ?sterreich. Innsbruck et al.: Studienverlag.

Fassman, Heinz (ed.) (2007), 2. ?sterreichischer Migrations- und Integrationsbericht: 2001-2006. Vienna and Klagenfurt: Drava.

Fürlinger, Ernst (2010) The Politics of Non-recognition: Mosque Construction in Austria. In: Allievi, Stefano (ed.), Mosques in Europe: Why a Solution has become a Problem. London: Hobbs, pp. 183-216.

Gingrich, Andre (1999) ?sterreichische Identit?ten und Orientbilder: Eine ethnologische Kritik. In: Dostal, Walter et al. (eds.), Wir und die Anderen: Islam, Literatur und Migration. Vienna Facultas WUV, 29-35.

Heine, Susanne (2005) Islam in Austria: Between Integration Politics and Persisting Prejudices. In: Bischof, Günther et al. (eds.) Religion in Austria, Contemporary Austrian Studies vol. 13. New Brunswick (USA) and Innsbruck: Studienverlag, pp. 100-124.

Hofbauer, Ernst (2009), Inschallah ?sterreich: Das unheimliche Paradies          . Vienna: Universitas.

Kamali, Mohammad Hashim (2008), The Middle Grounds of Islamic Civilisation: The Quranic Principle of Wasatiyyah. In: IAIS Malaysia Journal of Civilisation Studies 1(1), pp. 7-43.

Kamali, Mohammad Hashim (2010), The Quranic Principle of Wasatiyyah. Kuala Lumpur: IAIS Malaysia.

Marcinkowski, Christoph (ed.) (2009), The Islamic World and the West: Managing Religious and Cultural Identities in the Age of Globalisation. Berlin: LIT (Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology 24).

Marcinkowski, Christoph, and Eggen, Nora (2012), Islam in Europe: Present Trends and Future Challenges. Kuala Lumpur: IAIS Malaysia (IAIS Monograph Series 4).

Marik-Lembeck, Stephan (2010) Die muslimische Bev?lkerung ?sterreichs: Bestand und Ver?nderung 2001-2009. In: Janda, Alexander, and Vogl, Mathias (eds.) Islam in ?sterreich. Vienna: ?sterreichischer Integrationsfond, pp. 5-9.

Ornig, Nikola (2006) Die zweite Generation und der Islam in ?sterreich: Eine Analyse von Chancen und Grenzen des Pluralismus von Religion und Ethnien. Graz: Leykam.

Stricker, Maja (2008), Sondermodell ?sterreich? Die Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in ?sterreich. Klagenfurt: Drava.