In an effort to integrate foreign-born imams in France, a group of 40 imams have completed a year-long training course on French politics, law and secularism.
According to Djelloul Seddiki, director of Al Ghazali theology institute at the Grand Mosque of Paris and an organizer of the course, the students study the humanities, as well as the French political system, modern Western philosophy and the history of religions: “They also studied all Islamic religious sciences of the Qur’an, the Hadith, and the four schools of jurisprudence.”
There are approximately 1200 imams in France and many lead prayers and offer spiritual and practical advice to the faithful with little or no formal training. Three-quarters of them are not French citizens and one-third do not speak French.
