Muslim Lived Environments and Islamic Education at Austrian Mosques

Historical and contemporary research on religious education in mosque communities is lacking in the Austrian context. Although, according to the Islamic Religious Community in Upper Austria (IRG OÖ), almost a quarter of the communities provide religious education for Muslim children and young people, there are no empirical studies. Rather, opinions and information about the respective function and role of mosques are not based on systematically collected data, but rather on prejudices and speculations, which for the most part reflect the general climate surrounding Islam and its local structures. The Islamic Religious Community has also not conducted any studies in this regard. For this reason, the inter-institutional research project 'Koranschulen/Moscheeunterricht in OÖ' (Islamic schools/mosque teaching in Upper Austria) was commissioned by the Upper Austrian state government's integration office in autumn 2019. The Private University of Education, Diocese of Linz (PHDL), the Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU) and the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) presented their 290-page study three years later. The official representative of the Upper Austrian mosque communities, the Islamic Religious Community of Upper Austria (IRG OÖ), was also convinced of the necessity of the study and cooperated constructively. This book summarises the central results of the study and is supplemented by further chapters, which include a statement by the IRG OÖ and a perspective on the realisation of the recommendations.