In the context of minority rights freedom of belief and the case of politics on İslam in Austria

Although Austria encountered Muslims while fighting the Ottoman army at the gates of Vienna, the country's experience of living together with Muslims began with the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The occupation was couraged by the Berlin Conference in 1878. After the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria had a Muslim population of at least 600 thousand. The religion of Islam, to which such a large population belonged, was officially recognized in Austria with a special law enacted in 1912. This law was called the Islamic Law of 1912 (Islamgesetz 1912). With the 1912 Islamic Law, Muslims were legally integrated into Austria. In fact in order to appease Muslims, Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary even donated 250,000 gold crowns to a mosque project to be built in Vienna. By 2015, and then again in 2021, Islam in Austria was considered only as a security issue. Muslims were treated differently from people of other religions and their religious autonomy was interfered with by the amendment of 2015 Islamic Law. This law was later amended again in 2021, and rather than regulating the functioning of a religious community, the law was evaluated within the scope of the "anti-terrorism" law, putting Muslims in the dock altogether. In addition, the term of "political Islam" has been instrumentalized as a generic term used by Austrian governments to define Muslims and to revoke the rights of Muslims. In this research, we will evaluate the main points of Austria's Islam policies in the last 10 years, especially within the framework of the 2015 and 2021 Islamic Law. I would like to express my respect and thanks to my advisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erman Akıllı for his sincere suggestions in the preparation of this thesis. I am also grateful to my wife and family for putting up with me during this process.