Agata S. Nalborczyk

Financing of Islam from State Budgets and Its Legal Status in Selected European Union States

Islam in some EU countries is a traditional religion, which has existed in their territories for centuries, while in other it constitutes a new phenomenon. In countries where there is a traditional Muslim presence, Islam is officially recognised by the state and its functioning is defined by the law concerning traditional religions. The functioning patterns differ from country to country due to different models of state–church relations, confessional laws and legal traditions. Sometimes Islam as a religion and its spiritual functionaries are financed by the state (e.g. in Romania), but there are countries where the state funding of religion is prohibited by law (e.g. in Poland). This paper collects some characteristic cases of the legal situation of Muslims in various European states and presents the extent to which the Muslim religion is financed, or the lack of such financing resulting from the legal system.

Researchers of Islam in the West have noticed that imams working since the 1950s in Western Europe or the United States assume far more responsibilities than their counterparts in traditional Muslim societies. Consequently, further research had to identify and specify the types of imams who perform their service in the West – their most complete typology is the one developed by Niels Valdemar Vinding. However, besides Finland where the Muslim Tatars have lived since the nineteenth century, the classification does not include imams from areas inhabited by the indigenous Muslims. 

This study is an attempt to check if the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars living in Poland who have had their imams for centuries would fit into Vinding’s typology and if this typology also would work in a diachronic perspective. Literature on the subject was the basis for the research into the situation of imams in the past. Interviews with representatives of particular Muslim organizations served as the basis for the research into the present-day situation.