‘Newcomer religions' as an organisational challenge: recognition of Islam in the Austrian armed forces

In multicultural societies religious accommodation in state institutions such as schools, the military or prisons is challenging especially for ‘newcomer religions' like Islam. In order to claim religious rights newcomer religions have to adjust to established - historically-originated mainly C...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Military Chaplaincy
Main Author: Krainz, Ulrich (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge [2015]
In: Religion, state & society
Year: 2015, Volume: 43, Issue: 1, Pages: 59-72
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Austria / Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich / Military
Further subjects:B organisation development
B Islam
B Total institution
B formatting of religion
B Military
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:In multicultural societies religious accommodation in state institutions such as schools, the military or prisons is challenging especially for ‘newcomer religions' like Islam. In order to claim religious rights newcomer religions have to adjust to established - historically-originated mainly Christian - models of regulations for religious accommodation. This form of adaptation can be termed ‘formatting', as an adaptation effect that creates pressure on non-institutionalised religions like Islam on an organisational level. In this context, Austria constitutes an interesting and special case. Since 1912, Islam has the status of a state-recognised religion. Today the Austrian Muslim community is officially represented by the Islamic Religious Community in Austria (Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich). In this article I focus on the Islamic religious accommodation in the Austrian armed forces and draw on findings from current research that deals with the situation of Muslim conscripts in those armed forces. In so doing so, I discuss the ‘formatting effects' on Islam for both sides: the challenges for the official Islamic religious organisation in Austria as well as the consequences for the Muslim conscripts themselves.
ISSN:1465-3974
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion, state & society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2015.1022081