New Law on Islam in Austria

Vienna, February 25, 2015. Austria has put a new law concerning matters of Islam into place. The previous law dated to 1912 (the law of recognition of all religious communities in Austria). The organization “Initiative Liberaler Muslime Österreich” (ILMÖ) is strongly opposes the updated law and has already filed a complaint with the constitutional court.

 Short summary of the new law:

The Austrian government has announced that its new Islamic law could serve as a model for the rest of Europe, as it aims to reduce outside interference by eliminating foreign funding of mosques, imams and Muslim organizations in Austria. The Islamic law regulates several issues, including non-controversial matters such as Muslim holidays, Muslim graveyards, Muslim nutritional practices, and the engagements in prisons, the army and the priesthood in hospitals of Muslims. It also tires to avoid the spread of a parallel Islamic society in Austria by supervising mosques and the training of imams, who will need to have German language training in the future. Religious associations have time until 31 December 2015 to adapt their statutes to the new legal situation

The ILMÖ has already filed a complaint with the constitutional court in the processes B1/2015 and B2/2015.