Diyanet and Austrian IGGÖ Sign Memorandum Deepening Cooperation, Sparking Controversy

Dur­ing a high-pro­file vis­it to Vien­na on 3 May 2025, Diyanet head Ali Erbaş signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing to deep­en insti­tu­tion­al coop­er­a­tion with Aus­tri­a’s Diyanet coun­ter­part. The agree­ment with Austria’s Islam­ic Reli­gious Com­mu­ni­ty (IGGÖ) has trig­gered heat­ed debate, with crit­ics high­light­ing the con­tro­ver­sial views and past state­ments of the Diyanet chief. The arti­cle begins:

The vis­it of the head of the Turk­ish reli­gious author­i­ty to Vien­na has sparked much crit­i­cism. Ali Erbaş leads the reli­gious author­i­ty in Ankara, known as Diyanet, whose influ­ence extends as far as Vien­na. Erbaş is con­sid­ered a close con­fi­dant of Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On Fri­day, Erbaş was lav­ish­ly received in Vien­na, meet­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Turk­ish-Islam­ic Union (Atib) and deliv­er­ing the Fri­day ser­mon at a mosque. On Sat­ur­day, Erbaş met with the Islam­ic Reli­gious Com­mu­ni­ty (IGGÖ) and its pres­i­dent, Ümit Vur­al. In a state­ment, it was announced that Erbaş and Vur­al signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing dur­ing a “cer­e­mo­ny.” Accord­ing­ly, IGGÖ and Diyanet intend to work more close­ly togeth­er in the future.
[Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man original.]

Read more: https://www.oe24.at/oesterreich/politik/erdogans-hass-prediger-von-iggoe-in-wien-hofiert/632324156

Key Points

• On 3 May 2025, Diyanet chief Ali Erbaş vis­it­ed Vien­na and was host­ed by the IGGÖ, deliv­er­ing a Fri­day ser­mon and meet­ing com­mu­ni­ty leaders.

• Erbaş and IGGÖ pres­i­dent Ümit Vur­al signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing to deep­en insti­tu­tion­al cooperation.

• The vis­it and agree­ment drew sharp crit­i­cism due to Erbaş’s past state­ments on Israel and homo­sex­u­al­i­ty, which many con­sid­er discriminatory.

• IGGÖ stat­ed that its part­ners are respon­si­ble for their own state­ments and dis­tanced itself from any dehu­man­iz­ing or dis­crim­i­na­to­ry remarks.

Diyanet: How Turkey Uses State Religion as an Influence Tool

The Direc­torate of Reli­gious Affairs (Turk­ish: Diyanet İşl­eri Başkan­lığı or Diyanet) is a Turk­ish state insti­tu­tion respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing reli­gious affairs. Turkey lever­ages the Diyanet’s glob­al mosque net­work to project influ­ence abroad, con­trol­ling reli­gious mes­sag­ing and lead­er­ship in Turk­ish-speak­ing com­mu­ni­ties to advance Ankara’s polit­i­cal agen­da. This approach is part of a broad­er pat­tern in which Turk­ish and Iran­ian orga­ni­za­tions seek influ­ence over youth and reli­gious life. Diyanet’s expand­ing inter­na­tion­al bud­get and activ­i­ties reveal how it acts as a tool of Turk­ish soft pow­er, espe­cial­ly in Cen­tral Asia and Rus­sia, align­ing reli­gious out­reach with state geopo­lit­i­cal inter­ests. It’s transna­tion­al reli­gious engage­ment is increas­ing­ly spark­ing ten­sions with sec­u­lar states and West­ern allies. Belgium’s deci­sion to revoke recog­ni­tion and fund­ing for its offi­cial Mus­lim umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion under­scores this grow­ing scruti­ny of Turk­ish reli­gious insti­tu­tions’ role in Euro­pean Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties. Exter­nal research shows that the Diyanet’s strate­gic plan aims to reach near­ly 12 mil­lion peo­ple abroad by 2028, using mosques and imams as pri­ma­ry plat­forms for ide­o­log­i­cal and polit­i­cal out­reach, and that its activ­i­ties have at times includ­ed sur­veil­lance of crit­ics and oppo­nents, lead­ing to diplo­mat­ic con­tro­ver­sies in Europe.

Exter­nal References:

• Diyanet’s Role to pro­mote Turkey in Cen­tral Asia and Russia

• Transna­tion­al­i­sa­tion of Turk­ish Islam: Nav­i­gat­ing Glob­al Influ­ence through Faith

• Turkey aims to influ­ence mil­lions abroad by uti­liz­ing mosques and gov­ern­ment-employed imams

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.