How Much Should the State Influence the Islamic Religious Education in Europe? The Situation of the Islamic Religious Education in Austria compared to Germany

Some European countries introduced the Islamic religious education into their school system, not only to ensure a professional educational and didactical teaching of religious contents, but also and particularly to make the religious education clear and to protect it from abuse or instrumentalisation. Experience with the Islamic religious education in Austria and Germany has shown, that the demands on those classes can only be achieved by a specific cooperation of the state with the Islamic denomination, but which leads to the question: How much autonomy and how much state are necessary for the Islamic religious education, so that a contribution to the integration - particularly of young Muslims - in secular European societies can be guaranteed? Is a participation in the religious education by the state inconsistent with the precept of neutrality of a modern state? This article, with the help of the comparison of the situation of the Islamic religious education in Austria and Germany, tried to give an answer to those questions, to be able to draw conclusions for other European countries.