United States Department of State

“ The Government is secular. The Roman Catholic Church is the predominant religion; many Roman Catholic holidays are also government holidays.
The status of religious organizations is governed by the 1874 Law on Recognition of Churches and by the 1998 Law on the Status of Religious Confessional Communities, which establishes the status of "confessional communities." Religious organizations are divided into three legal categories (listed in descending order of status) : officially recognized religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. ”

“ The 1998 law allows nonrecognized religious groups to seek official status as "confessional communities" without the fiscal and educational privileges available to recognized religions. To apply, groups must have at least 300 members and submit to the Government their written statutes describing the goals, rights, and obligations of members, as well as membership regulations, officials, and financing. ”

“ Attendance in religious instruction is mandatory unless students formally withdraw at the beginning of the academic year; students under the age of fourteen need parental permission to withdraw from instruction. ”

“ The sects claimed that the Government relies too heavily on isolated cases of persons who have had negative experiences with a group, rather than speaking directly to the vast majority of members who make no complaint.
The Church of Scientology has reported that individual Scientologists have experienced discrimination in hiring.
Muslims complained about incidents of societal discrimination and verbal harassment. Muslim women reported difficulties in the job market when potential employers learned they wear a headscarf. ”

“ The European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia has declared in the past that anti-Semitism in the country was typically characterized by diffuse and traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes rather than by acts of physical aggression. ”

“ Historically, unrecognized religious groups had problems obtaining resident permits for foreign religious workers. Unlike visas for religious workers of recognized religions, religious workers who are members of unrecognized religions are subject to a numerical cap. ”

“ The Government does not offer such funding to nonrecognized religious groups. A minimum of three children is required to form a class. In some cases, religious societies decide that the administrative cost of providing religious instruction is too great to warrant providing such courses in all schools. ”

“ In the past several years, the country experienced a rise in immigration from countries such as Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which increased the number of Muslims in the country.
According to the 2001 census, membership in major religions was as follows: Roman Catholic Church, 74.0 percent; Lutheran and Presbyterian churches (Evangelical Church-Augsburger and Helvetic confessions) , 4.7 percent; Islamic community, 4.2 percent; Jewish community, 0.1 percent; Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romanian, and Bulgarian) , 2.2 percent; other Christian churches, 0.9 percent ”

“ The number of Muslims was higher than the national average in Vienna and the province of Vorarlberg, where industry drew a disproportionately higher number of guest workers from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia. ”