VIENNA, June 26, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The teaching of Islam has been gaining momentum in Austria since its introduction in the early 1980s, now available through thousands of private and state schools as well as academies across the European country.

“Islamic subjects were first taught in Austrian schools in 1982, where we only had five teachers and around 200 students,” Anas Shakfa, the chairman of the umbrella Islamic Religious Authority (IRA), told IslamOnline.net Sunday, June 26.

“Islam is now being taught by 300 teachers in some 1800 schools across the country,” he added.

Shakfa noted that students from other 1200 schools flock to Islam-teaching schools to classes on the Muslim faith.

“We in the IRA have twelve schools teaching Islamic subject with the assistance of 60 teachers."

The IRA, the official representative of the Muslim minority in Austria, supervises the teaching of Islam in all Austrian schools.

Muslims, estimated at nearly half a million, make up some 6 per cent of Austria's population.

Islam, which was recognized in 1912, is considered the second religion in the country after Catholic Christianity.

In a new momentum to the teaching of Islam in the country, an Islamic academy was inaugurated in September 1998 to qualify teachers involved in teaching Islamic subjects.

Students mastering the Arabic and German languages study in the academy for three years after finishing high school.

Others fluent in only one of the two languages must first take a one-year preparatory course.

Shakfa said the IRA has clinched an agreement with the official teachers’ academy to allow the Islamic academy students to take educational courses in the state academy.

“So, our students take the state curricula in the state academy and study Islamic subjects, humanities and languages in the Islamic academy,” he told IOL.

He said the Islamic academy prepares students to teach Islam at the primary and elementary schools levels.

“The graduates get a certificate allowing them to work in all EU-member states, except for Germany.”

The IRA chief said his umbrella group has been engaged in marathon talks with the Vienna University and the ministry of education, science and culture to reach an agreement on qualifying teachers of Islamic subjects.

The talks were crowned with an agreement on setting up an Islamic studies department offering a two-year course for graduates of the Islamic academy.

The department, which will see the light next year, will give MA degrees to graduates, he added.

The IRA will have the authority to choose the teaching staff and prepare Arabic language and Islamic subjects courses.

In addition, the Austrian-Islamic council for education and culture obtained a license from the education ministry to establish an Islamic institute.

The institute will teach the official Austrian curricula and the curricula of the Egypt-based Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world.

“It is a significant step to have the curricula of Al-Azhar being taught in Austria,” Abdul Fatah Bahariya, the head of the Austrian-Islamic council for education and culture, told IOL.

Bahariya praised the rising number of Islamic schools in Austria as a sign of a successful integration story.

“Islamic schools could be a hub for successful integration making Muslims fully aware of societal problems and appreciative of the climate of tolerance and freedom in which they practice their religion.”

Shakfa said the IRA received requests from Christian teachers for joint classes prepared by Christian and Muslim teachers for Austrian students.

“This is a very important step and much better than subjective lessons given about Islam, which might include misconceptions about Islam and Muslims.”

Mosques in Austria have become a meeting point for peoples of different faiths and backgrounds from across Europe, enhancing inter-faith dialogue and disseminating true information about a much-stereotyped Islam.

In March, the Cultural League in Austria (Alte Schmiede) organized an inter-faith forum in a bid to cement dialogue between Islam and the West.

The three-day forum showcased books of divergent ideologies reinforcing common grounds between Islam and the West through out the centuries and how they both helped enrich one another.