Islam Creates only Moderate Concern

Was it a real threat from the Al Qaeda network or was it just empty boasting? Ever since the emergence of a video with threats against the government, Austria has had to recognise that it knows little about the Muslims who live in the country. By Paul Jandl

photo: dpa — Three Turks sit in front of Vienna's St. Charles Cathedral. The towers were built resembling minarets, indicating the historically complex relationship between Austria and Islam

The name of the organisation was evidently designed to sound threatening: speaking in the name of a "Global Islamist Media Front", Mohammed M. was clearly trying to frighten the Austrian government. In a video which was made public in spring, the country's politicians were called upon to pull Austrian soldiers out of Afghanistan.

Mohammed M., the 22-year-old son of immigrants from Egypt, told the government that they wouldn't want to damage the security of their own country.

Mohammed M. was arrested in September, but ever since his video message, the question is being asked: what is he? Is he just a show-off, or is he really the first Al Qaeda terrorist on Austrian soil.

The young man with the wild beard had certainly not behaved like a typical "sleeper". He had already offered himself to the media as the spokesman for a radical movement called "Islamic Youth of Austria", and he had occasionally boasted that the CIA wanted to use him as an agent.

Stereotypes of perception

Whatever the truth, he is now being held in prison together with his wife. It could take months before all the material gathered by electronic eavesdropping has been evaluated. It is not yet at all clear whether he was really planning to carry out bomb attacks.

At the latest since the 11th September 2001, the whole world has been interested in Islam, but in Austria the debate only began to be significant after the emergence of Mohammed M.'s video message. No-one had ever heard of preachers of hate in Austria, and the only tough talk came from the representatives of anti-Muslim populism.

With slogans like "Daham statt Islam" ("At home instead of Islam") the Austrian right had been exploiting the customary low-level anti-foreigner feeling in society.

It cannot be denied that there is in Austria a vague fear of a culture which is only known through its stereotypes. Muslim migrants are visible in the cities, but it has become clear in the last few months that very little is known about them.

It is questionable whether this lack of awareness has been helped much by a study by the Institute of Sociology at the University of Vienna, according to which 99 percent of young Austrian Muslims reject violence as a means of spreading religion. At the same time, according to the same study, five percent express understanding for the use of militant methods.

Austria and Islam – a complex history

The relationship between Austria and Islam is historically complex, but not altogether unfriendly. Simply as a result of geography, the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy was a pluralistic institution.

Before 1878, contemporary sources speak of there being just ten Muslims on Austro-Hungarian territory, but the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in that year meant that the state had to deal with the issue of Islam. However, the Islam with which the state was confronted was an Islam with an enlightened tradition, very different from a Saudi-style fundamentalism.

Liberalising tendencies were the consequence and a new law on Islam was passed in 1912. Islam has been one of the country's official religions for far longer than in many other countries, even if it is only one of twelve recognised faiths.

Migrants in today's Austria

Four hundred thousand Muslims now live in Austria; 130,000 of them were born in the country. In many cases they make up closed societies, living in the less salubrious areas of Vienna, such as the fifteenth district, where immigrant families from Turkey, Bosnia, Albania, Egypt and Pakistan almost make up the majority. In the area behind the main railway station in Vienna, 46.2% of the population are immigrants.

But the discussion about Islam and the role of Muslims in society does not take place in such areas, where Muslims are a marginal group which is not integrated into the general population. The discussion takes place in the areas where the Muslims show self-confidence, for example, in the Viennese district of Floridsdorf, close to the Danube, where since 1979 there has been a large mosque, with a minaret which can be seen from afar.

When the local residents felt that the tape with the voice of the muezzin was too loud, it was something which could be discussed. Apart from that, there was scarcely any fuss about a building which had been designed for what was then a small religious minority.

Debates about mosques

Less than thirty years since the first mosques were built in Austria, the new mosques do not have an easier path. Last year there were emotional arguments over a new mosque in Telfs, in Tyrol, with a fifteen metre high minaret.

A citizens' initiative has been founded in a suburb on the edge of Vienna to prevent a Muslim religious and cultural centre from adding two storeys to its building. "Moschee ade" ("Adieu mosque") is the name of the activists' website, where they write: "Where the crescent rises, there sinks the golden Viennese heart."

The far right was very much involved in a big demonstration against a meeting place for Turkish Muslims in an old factory (which is anything but a real mosque). And it does not exactly contribute to de-escalation when regional politicians from the Christian conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) say that minarets are "foreign to our kind."

There is a group within the ÖVP which would like to see the Christian God find a place in the Austrian constitution. That would make Austria into a little godly niche in a world filled with much more secular states. For example, in France, Catholic religious education has not for a long time been part of the school curriculum.

On the other hand it cannot be said that the presence of 1,500 mosques in France has really solved the country's problems. There are so far just two "original" mosques in Austria (i.e. mosques that were built as mosques, not buildings that were "transformed" into a mosque); another will join them soon near Vienna. It will not have a minaret.

A long way from acceptance in society

Although in Austria there is a functioning system of Muslim schools and community centres, the immigrants have by no means yet found acceptance in their new homeland.

Liberal Muslims, like for example the Vienna-based Muslim educationalist Ednan Aslam, complain about cultural immobility. The social degradation which comes from an inadequate education at school only adds to the distance between the two worlds, he says. As he pointed out in the debates which took place after the publication of the video, Islam only has a chance in Europe if it does not take a position against secularisation.

It is the Muslim immigrants in the second generation who are most susceptible to political radicalisation. They have limited social perspectives and their recruitment by political organisations is particularly easy. It is to be assumed that Mohammed M., Austria's first and so far only radical Islamist, is not himself a political thinker. He failed to finish school, and lived with the six members of his family in a small run-down flat in the Viennese district of Fünfhaus.

Immigration will remain an aspect of life in Austria. The most recent immigration report shows the changes which have taken place in recent years.

Impending "Balkanisation"?

In 2001, around 14 percent of the population had an immigrant background. By 2007, that figure had risen to 16 percent. Most immigrants live in Vienna – a third of the population of Vienna was not born in Austria.

However, those who immediately fear the "Balkanisation" of the country may rest assured: the majority of the new residents do not come from the classical guest-worker countries, but from the European Union. The largest group of immigrants comes from Germany.

But could it be that the clash of civilisations has been less violent in Austria than elsewhere? Even the debate about the Muslim headscarf has not yet turned into a controversial issue. Rather the opposite: when the city authorities in Vienna recently presented new official uniforms for their cleaning staff, it included an official headscarf for the Muslim ladies.

Paul Jandl

Translated from the German by Michael Lawton

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