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12/08/2004:

"Imams to be taught French way of life"

Minister wants to build 'western Islam' through education

Muslim prayer leaders in France are to be offered university training in French law, civics, history and culture from next autumn as part of a bid to build a moderate "French Islam" that respects human rights and the Republican code, the interior minister said yesterday.
The courses, available initially at two university campuses in Paris will be accompanied by intensive French language lessons if necessary. Both current and future imams will be encouraged to enrol, Dominique de Villepin said in a newspaper interview.

"Today, of the 1,200 imams who practise in our country, 75% are not French and one-third do not even speak our language," Mr de Villepin told the daily Le Parisien. "This is not acceptable. In France we should have French imams, speaking French."

A ministry spokeswoman said that the courses would not be compulsory, but most imams would be "strongly advised" to take them. Official student status and temporary residence permits available to those who take up the offer, as well as the possibility of a grant, should also prove an inducement, she added.

"This is all part of our ambition to make France something of a model in Europe in terms of the organisation of the Muslim faith and its assimilation into society," she said.

Most of France's estimated 5 million-strong Muslim community, Europe's largest, is of north African origin, and many imams come directly from Arab countries to preach in France.

Some 40% of imams come from Morocco, 24% from Algeria, 6% from Tunisia, and 16% from Turkey. Their religious training is increasingly likely to have been in fundamentalist Islamic principles that clash with secular French laws.

The promotion of a moderate, European Islam through state education has become a preoccupation of many western governments,
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

It never occurs to reflexive imperialists to question by what right they presume to 'organize' someone's religion for them