VIENNA, March 19, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – A new draft law on Islam in Austria gives the Muslim minority more rights, setting up a college to graduate imams, employing Muslim chaplains in the arm, police and hospitals and criminalizing verbal and body attacks against Muslim women.

"We have already written and the amendments and are now discussing with government officials taking the draft law to parliament for endorsement," Mudr Khugah, the personal envoy of the Islamic Religious Authority's chairman, told IslamOnline.net on Sunday, March 19.

"We hope this can be done before the end of the government's tenure in October."

Khugah said the 1912 law on Islam, which basically targeting Bosnian Muslims, is largely conservative and needs modifications.

He added that one of the key fruits of the new law would be the establishment of a college to groom Muslim imams.

"The college, which will be affiliated to the Vienna University and supervised by IRA, will be similar to that of the Protestants and Catholics in the country," said the Muslim activist.

He added that faculty plans is financially support by both the Ministry of Education and the Vienna University.

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

Muslims are estimated at 400,000 in Austria, making up 4% of the country's 8 million population.

The Muslim activist said the proposed amendments tended to allow Islamic chaplaincy and congregational prayers in army camps.

"There is already a prayer hall in a military camp in the capital Vienna," he added.

Austrian Defense Minister Guenther Platter said on Saturday, March 18, that Muslim chaplains would be allowed to deliver sermons in the army.

He was quoted by the daily Der Kurier as saying that Muslims make up 3.5% of the army, the same percentage of Protestants.

Khugah underlined that religious chaplaincy would also be allowed in prisons and hospitals.

"There are some 1100 Muslims in Austrian prisons who need religious guidance."

He said religious guidance for Muslim inmates had been practiced by a Muslim for nearly six years before he was finally certified by both the interior ministry and IRA as a chaplain.

The Muslim activist said the proposed law will also enshrine certain rights for Muslim women in Austria.

"The amendments will include respect for the dress code of Muslim women and criminalize verbal or body assaults against them."

In another development, the Catholic Church in the Upper Austria region has decided to allow the teaching of Islam in one of its 55 affiliated schools.

Other Catholic schools were expected to follow suit due to the high number of Muslim students enrolled.

Under the schools' religious education law, schools are asked to allocate an hour-long weekly class for any recognized religious group once the number of students reached three.

This increases to two weekly classes if the number of students is more than three.

The head of the Vatican's department on Justice and Peace on Thursday, March 9, backed allowing Muslim pupils in Italy to study Islam in state schools, urging reciprocal measures from Muslim countries.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams defended on Tuesday, March 14 faith schools in Britain as contributing to the promotion of religious tolerance and not the opposite.

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