Fischer joined Muslims in celebrating the silver Jubilee of the Islamic Religious Authority in Austria.

By Tamer Abul Einein & Ahmed Al-Matboli, IOL Correspondents

VIENNA, January 4 (IslamOnline.net) – The Muslim community in Austria shined in 2004, showing great ability to integrate smoothly into the Austrian society, making use of the official recognition of Islam as a the second state religion, allowing Muslims to defend their rights, in addition to being staunch supporters of Arab and Islamic causes.

The year 2004 started on a promising note for Austrian Muslims, with official estimates showing their number had doubled to hit 300,000, making up 4% of the 8 million population.

In 1991, the Austrian Muslim community made only 2% of the total population.

The 2004 statistics showed Muslims highly concentrated in the western Austrian city of Freiburg, making up 8.4% of the total population in the area. The capital Vienna came second, with Muslims making up to 7.8% of its population.

Islam, which was officially acknowledged in Austria in 1912, is considered the second religion in the country after Catholicism.

Good Relations

The year 2004 also ended on two good notes for the Muslim community in Austria, manifested in two meetings with the Austrian President Heinz Fischer that highlighted the privileges Austrian Muslims enjoy, compared to other Muslim communities in Europe.

Since he was elected President in 2004, Fischer has taken several good gestures toward the Muslim community in Austria.

He invited representatives of the Muslim community to an iftar banquet in the presidential palace during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Fischer also joined the Austrian Muslims in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Islamic Religious Authority (IRA) in Austria. The celebrations were also attended by a cohort of senior government officials.

Addressing the ceremony, the Austrian leader greeted the Austrian Muslims by saying “Viva the Muslim community in Austria”, the first such greeting by any an EU leader.

Established in 1979, the IRA functions as the religious and spiritual representative of Muslims in Austria.

Vienna mayor Michael Haupl also hailed the successful Muslim integration into the Austrian society, stressing Muslims are part and parcel of Austria's social fabric.

Staunch Supporter

In addition to being an example of social integration, the Austrian Muslim community was no less active in the support of Arab and Islamic issues, primarily the Palestinian and Iraqi causes.

In this respect, several peaceful marches were organized by the Muslim community to highlight support for the two Arab nations under occupation.

On March 20, thousands of Austrians took part in a rally in central Vienna to condemn the “imperialistic campaigns” in Palestine and Iraq, calling for establishing peace around the globe.

The Muslim community in Austria also condemned the Israeli assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Condemnation

The general atmosphere of peaceful integration manifested itself in how the Austrian community dealt with the wave of Islamophobia ripping through other EU countries.

Austrian Muslims and imams have been loudly criticizing of any resorting to violence in solving disputes. That was clear in their condemnation of the killing of anti-Islam Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

That kind of attitude was extremely hailed by the Austrian press.

The Austrian Der Standard applauded a Friday sermon by the Muslim imam Sheikh Adnan Ibrahim who highlighted the fact that Austria provided Muslims with safety and good living conditions, requiring Muslims to answer with gratitude.

The Austrian Muslims have also been strongly present as far as international crises were concerned, especially the quake-triggered tsunamis which hit Asian countries.

Responding to the crisis, the IRA opened a banking account to receive donations to help the tsunami-hit peoples.

Muslim imams also urged all Muslim people to do their utmost efforts to bring help to the Asian peoples, regardless of their faiths.

Women

Credit for a successful and a fruitful year does not only go to Muslim men in Austria. Muslim women have, in fact, weighed heavily in that regard.

Joining men in drawing a bright picture of the Muslim community in Austria, women also held meetings with senior officials to discuss issues of concern to the Muslim community in the European country.

A female Muslim delegation met senior government officials last year.

The delegation stressed that Islam enshrined inalienable rights for women and cleared stereotypes circulated by right-wing media.

Racist Practices

The picture was not all that rosy though. The Muslim community did face incidents of racist practices from rightist parties in the country, chiefly Austrian bishop Court Kreen who accused Muslims with brutality and terrorism, warning against flooding Europe with Muslim immigrants.

Responding to the remarks, the IRA urged the Austrian bishop to respect the Vatican decisions on good relations with Islam and Muslims.

The Catholic church in Austria actually was swift in rejecting Kreen’s claims, adding it was unacceptable to associate Islam with brutality.

Copying an anti-hijab drive in some European countries, a school in the Austrian city of Leinz banned Muslim students from wearing hijab.

In response, the IRA urged the Austrian education minister to guarantee the right of Muslim students to wear hijab at schools.

France has triggered a controversy by adopting a bill banning hijab and religious insignia in public schools.

The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) dismissed the French move as “discriminatory”.