The Enduring Legacy of the Habsburg Islam Policy - (Exploring Muslim Contexts) by Sevgi Adak & Thomas Schmidinger (Hardcover)

About the Book

Examines contemporary legal and political structures governing Muslim communities in Central and Southeast Europe.

Book Synopsis

When Otto Habsburg, son of the last emperor of the Austria-Hungarian Empire Karl I, died in 2011, among those who prayed at the funeral in Vienna's Stephansdom was Mustafa Efendi Ceric, the Reis ul-ulema of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was to honour the long-lasting relationship between the bygone empire of the Catholic Habsburgs with European Muslims. The cornerstone of this association was the 1912 Islam Act (Islamgesetz) of the Habsburgs, which made Austria-Hungary the first Catholic European state to confer official status to Islam.

This book explores the legacy of this act and the ways in which it continues to impact the legal frameworks and political structures governing Islam and Muslim communities in the successor states of Austria-Hungary. It discusses the unique coexistence in Central Europe of centuries-old, 'indigenous' European Muslims with recently settled Muslim immigrants, and the trajectory of their interactions with the state. This volume is therefore not only crucial to the debate about European Islam but also to the question of the legal and political framework of Islamic religious communities in a secular Europe.

Review Quotes

The present volume is a welcome contribution to the field of the research on Islam in Europe, particularly Central and Eastern parts of it, as there are still far too few monographs or edited volumes in English dealing with the presence of Islam and its governance in this part of Europe. It could be part of the reading material in university courses covering governance of religion in Europe while individual scholars and public servants would also benefit from reading the book.--Egdūnas Račius, Vytautas Magnus University