France is ending the sending of foreign imams to French mosques with a new legislation. In the country with the highest proportion of Muslims in the population, dealing with Islam has been a fraught issue since the terrorist attacks in 2015. Since then, Islam has been seen in France no longer just as a religion, but also as a potential danger. But the debate already has changed since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. Islam is treated as a security risk. Authorities worried about the imams’ influence on Muslims in France.
President Emmanuel Macron now wants to free Islam in France from foreign influences. All posted imams must leave the country by the end of March. They came to France as foreign officials; bilateral agreements with the respective countries made this possible. But in the future, only imams who grew up and were trained in France should preach in mosques. It is still completely unclear who will replace the imams sent, currently the number is estimated at around 300. It is not even clear where the French imams will one day be trained.
In France, most immigrant Muslims come from the former colonies and mandated territories in the Middle East and North Africa. Four to seven million live in the country today; it is a heterogeneous group, the majority have their roots in Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia. There are 2,500 mosques, plus many small prayer rooms. These are estimates because the French state does not keep statistics on religious affiliation.
Most mosques are dependent on foreign countries, financed by Muslim states. Their imams come from abroad or have studied in Muslim countries. That was definitely intentional: France has allowed countries like Algeria, Morocco and Türkiye to officially send imams to France since the 1980s. This was intended to prevent poorly trained and radical preachers from becoming active in the mosques and the believers becoming radicalized.
The majority of imams who are state officials in the country come from Algeria and Türkiye. A minority comes from Morocco. But they are controversial. Because they don’t know the culture, laws or language of the host country and are replaced every few years. In France, the government fears that the imams sent will create a divide between Muslims and the rest of the population. That’s why they want to end the practice.
A new study by the University of Strasbourg on religious minorities now believes that France should never have allowed state imams from abroad. “They are nationalistic and preach to believers that they are, above all, Turks, Moroccans or Algerians. And no French people.” Türkiye in particular uses the system to politically influence the Turks in France.
After the Charlie Hebdo attack, then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that representatives of Islam must promote a “strong, republican, professional and organized Islam.” Valls addressed the mosques. They should convey French culture to Muslims and contribute to integration. He saw the imams above all as having a duty because they could prevent the radicalization of Muslims. Or favor it.
There are currently different examples of how French mosques deal with their imams and donations from abroad. There is the Great Mosque of Saint-Ouen, a small town north of Paris. The mosque has been around for 24 years and 4,500 visitors come to Friday prayers. They have their roots all over the Arab world. The director there grew up in France and has been an imam for 33 years. He also lectures at the renowned Sciences Po in Paris. His father was already a lawyer and imam. He studied in France and learned Islamic theology at universities in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
The mosque in Saint-Ouen is financed with donations from believers and is therefore independent. Offers for funds from foreign states are rejected because a mosque that receives funds from a foreign state is bound to conditions. But refusing donations also means having less money for imams and other employees. The Saint-Ouen mosque must declare its finances to the Ministry of the Interior. The imams are also increasingly being checked.
Many mosques have been closed in recent years. Checks repeatedly reveal that the imams or the presidents of the mosques are close to Islamist groups or receive money from them. A radical imam in the Seine-Saint-Denis department only came to the attention of the authorities when he responded to the video of the hate speech against the teacher Samuel Paty using the mosque’s Facebook account. Paty had shown cartoons of Mohammed in class. He was beheaded by a terrorist who only became aware of Paty through the video.
The imam of the mosque in Saint-Ouen thinks the government’s controls are important. But they would mostly meet the obviously radical imams. The much greater danger comes from poorly trained imams, who are hardly noticed by the authorities. They are the ones who created the often mentioned gap between the Muslim and the rest of the French population. Imams should be able to do more than quoting the Quran in sermons. They would have to exchange ideas with believers, know the reality of their lives and give them advice. The imam is also a marriage counselor, pastor and integration helper. And he can recognize when a Muslim is becoming radicalized.
In France, young Muslims mostly get information about Islam on the Internet. And there they quickly come across radical content. “Young people spend more time with YouTube imams than in the mosque,” says the imam. The young people also asked him for his opinion. They showed him videos from the Internet and wanted to know whether what the imams said in them was true. “One time parents came to me and said their son was mentally ill.” It turned out that the son was following radical Islamists on the Internet.
Imams who represent the values of a western and plural society are worried about who will replace the foreign imams. There is already a shortage of imams in France. And those who remain now are often poorly educated. A good imam also needs a degree in theology. However, the profession of imam is unattractive because it is not regulated in France. Anyone can call themselves an imam. Therefore, there is a demand that the profession be professionalized, with a recognized diploma.
In most European countries, priests or pastors have studied theology at a university. In France it is more complicated. Secularism has been written into the constitution since 1905. State and religion are strictly separated. There are no religious lessons in schools and there are no theological faculties at universities.
The only exception is Alsace. In 1905 the region still belonged to the German Empire. When it became part of France again in 1918, the population rejected secularism. To date, the University of Strasbourg has the only Christian theological faculty in France, and the city of Strasbourg subsidizes mosques as well as churches. But even there, plans for an Islamic theology faculty have so far failed. French universities offer courses on the Muslim world and Islam, but they are scientific courses. The prospective imams still have to go abroad for theological training.
The Great Mosque of Strasbourg is an example of how mosques are now organizing themselves. The mosque is located in the south of the city, on the edge of an industrial district, directly on the River Ill. On Fridays, 2,000 believers come to pray. The visitors differ in their origins and the Islamic movement to which they belong. What they have in common is that they live in France and speak French. But there are hardly any imams to whom this applies in France.
The imam of the mosque in Strasbourg is French, but studied in Morocco, a country where different laws apply, a different political system prevails and Islam is the religion of the majority. In the future, the president of the mosque only wants to hire imams who were trained in France. That’s why he founded the Institute Islamica, an imam school. The prospective imams study Islamic theology at the institute and also attend legal and sociological lectures at the University of Strasbourg. The first course of study is scheduled to begin in September and last three years.
They are now looking for people who can teach at the institute. But most of the candidates come from abroad. And there are dependencies again: the mosque in Strasbourg receives donations from Morocco. Without the money, it would have to shut down operations. Projects for imam schools are also underway at the large mosques in Lyon and Paris. But they are also financially and personnel dependent on foreign states.
So the problem with foreign imams goes in circles. President Macron wants to professionalize mosques in France and free French Islam from foreign influences. But he has to leave the implementation to the Muslims themselves. And they, in turn, finance the operation of their mosques with money from abroad.
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