Carla Amina Baghajati

Carla Amina Baghajati at an event on the occasion of the Long Night of Churches in a Catholic Church

Carla Amina Baghajati (born June 29, 1966 in Mainz ) is a media officer for the Islamic Faith Community and co-founder of the “Initiative for Muslim Austrians”.

Life

She was born in 1966 in Mainz-Mombach in Germany as Carla Siebrasse. She grew up in a mixed denominational Christian family, her father was Protestant, her mother Catholic. After school education and high school graduation in Mainz, graduating class 1985 at the Frauenlob-Gymnasium, she went to study in Austria in 1987, where she first completed an acting training at the Vienna Conservatory . She then began studying comparative literature , Arabic and history , which she did not graduate. In 1989 she converted to Islam and took "Amina" as her middle name. In 1990 she married the Syrian civil engineer and publicist Tarafa Baghajati . Four children followed from the marriage.

Public work

Carla Amina Baghajati got involved in theater and leisure projects with Muslim children between 1991 and 1994.

From 1995 to 1998 she was involved in setting up a Muslim kindergarten in Vienna and became increasingly involved in projects aimed at integrating migrants.

In 1999 she founded the “Initiative of Muslim Austrians” together with her husband Tarafa Baghajati . Other founding members were Omar Al-Rawi , the then integration officer of the Islamic Faith Community in Austria, as well as Mouddar Khouja and Andrea Saleh, who are functionaries of the Islamic Faith Community in Austria . The initiative is committed to media work and interreligious dialogue and organized, among other things, "Open Mosque Days". Carla Amina Baghajati is also a board member of the “Christians and Muslims” platform. She got involved with the Islamic Religious Community in Vienna and was entrusted with the department for media and public relations by the then President Anas Schakfeh.

She became known to the general public after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York, when the topic of Islam was increasingly covered in the media. Since then, Carla Amina Baghajati has been invited to television discussions as a studio guest, gave interviews for print media and appeared at events and panel discussions. In addition to her public relations work, she was involved in Muslim religious education in state schools, organized the first Austrian imam conference in 2005 and has been a lecturer at the Islamic Religious Education Academy in Vienna since 2004 .

In May 2015, her book “Being a Muslim - 25 questions, 25 orientations” was published by Tyrolia. It deals with topics such as worship, role models, living together, marriage and family and the concept of honor.

The Liberal Muslim Initiative and the chairman of the Turkish cultural community were accused of not standing for a liberal, secular Islam.

Awards

In 2008 she received the Federal Decoration of Honor from the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture under Minister Claudia Schmied for her voluntary engagement in intercultural dialogue .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ islaminitiative.at: Carla Amina Baghajati
2. ↑ christenundmuslime.at ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ ORF ethnic groups: Carla Amina Baghajati ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ [1]
5. ^ "Being a Muslim": The role of women in Islam. In: religion.orf.at. Retrieved December 17, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ^ The veiled: Carla Amina Baghajati is the PR officer for Islam in Austria , profile from September 25, 2014