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Constituted Islam and Muslim Everyday Practices in Austria: the Diversity of the Ties to Religious O Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjmm20 Constituted Islam and Muslim Everyday Practices in Austria: The Diversity of the Ties to Religious Organizational Structures and Religious Authorities in the Process of Change Jonas Kolb To cite this article: Jonas Kolb (2020) Constituted Islam and Muslim Everyday Practices in Austria: The Diversity of the Ties to Religious Organizational Structures and Religious Authorities in the Process of Change, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 40:3, 371-394, DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2020.1819129 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2020.1819129 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa Published online: 17 Sep 2020. UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Submit your article to this journal Article views: 529 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cjmm20 Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2020 Vol. 40, No. 3, 371–394, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602004.2020.1819129 Constituted Islam and Muslim Everyday Practices in Austria: The Diversity of the Ties to Religious Organizational Structures and Religious Authorities in the Process of Change JONAS KOLB Abstract In current debates, Muslims are often perceived as a homogeneous group of devout persons who one and all have close relations with mosque associations and regularly, for purely religious reasons, turn to such associations. However, such notions clash with the reality. This paper contrasts such generalizing ascriptions with a differen- tiated image close to actual life. On the basis of a comprehensive mixed-methods study, the spectrum and differentiation of the ties of Muslims to constituted Islam, over and beyond ethnic boundaries, are described. The analysis focuses on everyday experiences, views and activities; it also examines the process-driven character and virtualization through the Internet of religious life. The findings of the present study point up the changes religious authorities are experiencing, and just how ambivalent and diverse the relations of Muslims to religious organizational structures are or can be. Keywords: everyday life practices; constituted Islam; lifeworlds; organizational struc- tures; Muslim organizations; mosque associations; religious authorities; Austria; mixed- methods study Introduction As a result of formal state recognition of Islam in 1912 in Austria, the legal situation of Muslims living in the country differs from that in other European states. In international comparative terms, Islam in Austria was given the status of a religious community quite early on.1 By means of the “Law on Islam” (the so-called “Islamgesetz”), the Muslim population was basically accorded the same rights as the members of other religious com- munities in Austria.2 Despite the long history of Islam and Muslims in Austria, academic research on this subject has for decades remained marginal. It was largely not until the 9/11 incident in Jonas Kolb is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Islamic Theology and Religious Pedagogy at the University of Innsbruck. He gained a doctorate in sociology at the Goethe-University Frankfurt and his research is focused on religiosity, everyday religious practice and Muslim lifeworlds, as well as ethnicity, ethnic minority studies and migration. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. 372 Jonas Kolb 2001 in New York that Islam and the Muslims in Europe began to attract more interest in research.3 In the last two decades, an extensive and multifaceted spectrum of studies and publications focused on these topics have appeared. The majority of those studies center mainly on legal, historical or political questions, or provide general surveys of Islam in Austria.4 In addition, since the beginning of the civil war in Syria and a spate of crimes such as attacks by Islamic terror organizations, numerous studies have appeared dealing with religious fundamentalism, radicalism, extremism or related prevention efforts in this sphere.5 In recent years there have also been increased efforts to investigate Muslim lifeworlds,6 milieus and everyday religious practices in the Muslim population.7 It must be noted that generally within scientific research, examination to a substantial degree has concentrated usually on devout Muslims who in most cases also maintain close ties to mosques or religious associations. But a consequence flowing from that is the corresponding constriction of the Muslim presence in the media and the public sphere.8 That is because this prioritizing along religious lines indirectly functions to support one-dimensional perspectives and stereotyping, which proceed from the essen- tializing assumption that the Muslim population is a homogeneous group of highly reli- gious persons who practice their religion consistently, all in largely the same manner. And such stereotypical views assume concomitantly that as a rule Muslims have close ties to mosque associations, and frequent such associations regularly for mainly religious motives and reasons.9 This also awakens the impression that among Muslims there are no critical attitudes toward mosque associations or religious umbrella organizations. Yet such conceptions do not correspond with reality. The present article seeks to coun- terpose a differentiated, realistic, true-to-life picture over against such misleading con- structions. However, it is necessary to mention here that the focus on constituted Islam is by no means odd or inappropriate, since from the recognition by the state in 1912 and the formal constitution of the Islamic Community of Faith in Austria (Islamische Glaubens- gemeinschaft in Österreich, IGGÖ) in 1979 as a recognized statutory body under public law, a multifaceted landscape of constituted Islam has come into being. The term “con- stituted Islam” describes the existence of organized religious structures—such as mosque associations, Muslim umbrella organizations and representative organizations —as well as acknowledged religious authorities. In the life of Muslims, the constituted organizational structures and authorities often have a very great significance. In addition, they shape the face and image of a religion and dominate its public perception and perceptibility.10 There are in turn at best only estimates regarding the degree of organization of Muslims in religious institutions; and to date there are no reliable data.11 However, studies dealing with organized religious structures that proceed as point of departure from Muslim daily religious practices and the plurality and diversity of Muslim lifeworlds remain an exception. In this connection, Martin Petzke and Hartmann Tyrell also speak of a “blind spot”12 when it comes to organizations. The international state of research is also deficient in this respect. For that reason, the present paper, based on an extensive empirical study, deals with the relation between constituted structures and Muslim diver- sity, and seeks in so doing to contribute to closing the research and information gap noted here. Before analyzing the position of the Muslim population in Austria today, the paper sketches the historical basic features of organized religious structures in Austria. It then discusses constituted organizational structure in theory and seeks to illuminate selected studies that deal in particular with the relations of Muslim believers toward religious insti- Constituted Islam and Muslim Everyday Practices in Austria 373 tutions. Following that the empirical basis of this article is illustrated. The paper then moves on to describing the diversity and differences in the positions, views and practices of the Muslim population in relation to constituted Islam, drawing on empirical analyses, statements in interviews and socio-demographic data. Subsequently, the paper discusses thoughts and reflections dealing with the dynamic processual character of religious life, the digital virtualization of aspects of religion and the changes manifest among religious authorities as well as the implications of the diversity of ties to constituted religious struc- tures. Muslims in Austria and the Genesis of Organized Religious Structures The history of Islam in Austria is rooted on one hand in the expansion of the Habsburg Empire, on the other in the settlement in Austria of the so-called “guest workers” in the 1960s and ‘70s.13 Since then Islam in Austria has been divided into two main currents: an Islam marked by a Bosnian tenor as well as an Islam with a distinctive Turkish coloration. Past decades have witnessed a significant numerical upsurge in the Muslim population in Austria, and there has been notable differentiation in its makeup. A projection in 2017 estimated the size of the Muslim population at some 700,000.14 Approximately half of the Muslims living in Austria have Austrian citizenship. This segment is very non-homo- geneous, since the persons involved have very different migrant backgrounds.
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