[1] In 2023, the country was scored 3 out of 4 for religious freedom;[2] in 2021, the government established a new staff unit in the fight against antisemitism sentiment and violence.
Other groups termed "sects" include Divine Light Mission, Eckankar, Hare Krishna, the Holosophic Community, the Osho Movement, Sahaja Yoga, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, Transcendental Meditation, Center for Experimental Society Formation, Fiat Lux, Universal Life, and The Family.
This status permits religious societies to engage in a number of public or quasi-public activities that are denied to confessional communities and associations.
New criteria included a 20-year period of existence (at least 10 of which must be as a group organized as a confessional community under the 1998 law) and membership equaling at least two one-thousandths of the country's population (approximately 16,000 persons).
The 1998 law allows nonrecognized religious groups to seek official status as "confessional communities" without the fiscal and educational privileges available to recognized religions.
Once the Government recognizes them, religious confessional communities have juridical standing, which permits them to engage in such activities as purchasing real estate in their own names and contracting for goods and services.
A religious group that seeks to obtain this new status is subject to a six-month waiting period from the time of application to the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Administrative procedures adopted in 1997 for certain unrecognized groups, which exempt these workers from having to obtain governmental permission to work, helped to address this problem in part.
New poverty guidelines and shortened visa validity periods make it more difficult for some members of this group to obtain resident permits.
Although the Ministry of Education granted Jehovah's Witnesses the status of a confessional community in 1998, they were denied recognition as a religious society in 1997 under the 1874 law.
A complaint filed by the Jehovah's Witnesses with the ECHR in 1998, arguing that the group had not yet been granted full status as a religious entity in the country under the law despite a two-decade struggle, remained pending at the end of the period covered by this report.
Three other applications were filed by individuals and dealt with the denial of exemption for the ministers of Jehovah's Witnesses from both military and alternative service.
On February 1, 2005, the ECHR ruled that two of the cases dealing with military exemption were admissible as possible violations of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding freedom of religion and discrimination.
On November 16, 2006, the Jehovah's Witnesses filed an application with the ECHR regarding aspects of the Law on Confessional Communities which does not allow for religious societies to receive tax concessions.
GSK distributes information to schools and the general public and runs a counseling center for those who believe they have been negatively affected by cults or sects.
The conservative People's Party (OVP) position regarding membership in a "sect" remained in force during the period covered by this report.
The incidents also included name-calling, graffiti/defacement, threats, anti-Semitic Internet postings, property damage, vilifying letters, and telephone calls.
On February 7, 2007, a court sentenced a 30-year-old Croatian immigrant to 15 months in prison for the November 26, 2006, destructive rampage against the Lauder Chabad School in Vienna.
The European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia has declared in the past that antisemitism in the country was typically characterized by diffuse and traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes rather than by acts of physical aggression.
On February 20, 2006, he had been found guilty of denying the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz and sentenced to three years in prison.
A large portion of the public perceived such groups as exploiting the vulnerable for monetary gain, recruiting and brainwashing youth, promoting antidemocratic ideologies, and denying the legitimacy of government authority.
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.
Societal prejudice could also be a problem; a poll in 2006 found that 90 percent of Austrians believed sects are "inherently dangerous."
Muslim women reported difficulties in the job market when potential employers learned they wore a headscarf.
In 2004 the Equal Treatment Bill that implemented the EU Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Racism Guidelines took effect, allowing such victims to take action in court.
In October 2006 graffiti crosses were painted on the walls of the Muslim cemetery under construction in Vienna's Liesing district.
During the campaign for the October 1, 2006, national parliamentary elections, the Islamic Community also noted anti-Islamic slogans from the right wing Freedom Party.
The international Catholic organization Pro Oriente, which promotes a dialogue with the Orthodox churches, was also active in the country.
At the end of the reporting period, construction continued on the new Islamic cemetery in Vienna's Liesing district, which was expected to be completed in late 2007.