Islam is a minority religion in Austria with 4.22% of the population in the 2001 census. Most Muslims came to Austria after 1960 as migrant workers from Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, many of these foreign workers do not officially register with their respective religious organizations, and accurate information about the size of these communities is not available. Austria is unique among West European countries insofar as it has granted Muslims the status of a recognized religious community. This dates back to the times following Austria-Hungary´s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. Austria has regulated the religious freedoms of the Muslim community with the so called Act of Recognition. This law was reactivated in 1979 when the Community of Muslim believers in Austria – Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österech was founded. Parallel structures exist within the Islamic religious group. The religious life takes place in mosques belonging to organisation which represent one of the currents of Turkish, Bosnian and Arab Muslims. Among the Turkish organisations the „Federation of Turkish-Islamic Associations“ is controlled by the Directorate for Religious Affairs, whereas the other groups, such as the Süleymancıs and Milli Görüş, may be considered as branches of the pan-European organisation centered in Germany.
Muslims came to Germany as a part of the diplomatic, military and economic relations between Germany and the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. In 1798 a Muslim cemetery was established in Berlin. The cemetery, which moved in 1866, still exists today. In World War I about 15,000 Muslim prisoners of war were interned in Wünsdorf. The first mosque was established in Wünsdorf in 1915 for these prisoners, though it was closed in 1930. After the war, a small number of Muslims stayed in Berlin. Imam Maulana Sadr ad-Din worked as a first missionary of the Lahore Branch of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Berlin from 1922. Their Wilmersdorfer Moschee designed by K. A. Kermann was built between 1924 and 1928. The rise of Nazism in the country did not specifically target Muslims at all, but German Muslims lived in an atmosphere of suspicion as a religious minority and were subjected to xenophobia and racism as „ non-Aryans“.