The Turkish Shia communities in Germany differentiate themselves according to their roots in east Anatolian Twelver Shiism (“Caferi”; mostly refugees from Russian Azerbaijan, who came to the district of Iğdır after 1918) or as converts from Turkish Sunnism after the “Islamic Revolution” in Iran. Conversion from Sunni Islam to Shiism is in fact quite an […]

The ethnographic setting of the Shias in Germany is still characterized by the results of several waves of migration since the 1960s: Iranians, Turkish labor migrants, and Lebanese, Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani refugees maintain their ethnic identity partly by means of religion and ritual activity. However, there are some German converts, as well as Turkish […]

Up to now there are three Muslim communities in Austria: (a) Islamic Faith Community (Islamische Glaubengemeinschaft in Österreich (IGGiÖ) which comprises of Sunnis and Iranian Shias), (b) Alevi Faith Community (Alewitische Glaubengemeinschaft in Österreich), (c) Shia Denomination Community (Schitische Bekenntnisgemeinschaft, which comprises of Iraq Shias). Nowadays the ‘Islamic Faith Community in Austria’ (Islamische Glaubengemeinschaft in […]