Deployment of Turkish imams ends step by step
Many imams who preach in German mosques are Turkish civil servants. This arrangement has long been criticized. Now there is an agreement to gradually end this practice. Instead, the preachers are to be trained in Germany.
The German government has agreed a roadmap with Turkey to end the sending of imams to Germany. This has been controversial for years because the preachers, who are usually sent for four years, follow instructions from Ankara as Turkish civil servants and usually only have incomplete knowledge of the reality of life in German society.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the approximately 1,000 preachers currently working in Germany for the Turkish religious authority Diyanet are to be gradually replaced by imams trained in Germany over the next few years. The Diyanet imams are mainly active in the mosques of the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (Ditib). According to information from the German government, several dozen of them preach in the congregations of the Union of Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations in Europe (ATIB) and Milli Görüs - two associations mentioned in the latest annual report from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
In order to reduce the foreign influence on what is preached in German mosques before the final end of the deployment of imams, the professional responsibility for these preachers will no longer lie with the Turkish consulates general in the course of 2024, but will be transferred to Ditib.
German lessons in training too
For its part, the German government wants to promote the training of additional imams in Germany. This training, which is open to graduates of Islamic theology courses, is to consist of three pillars: German language teaching, Islamic religious education as well as German history, socio-political issues and values.
"I am delighted that, after long negotiations, we have been able to conclude an agreement with Turkey for the first time that will put an end to the deployment of state-employed imams from Turkey," said Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser from the SPD. She emphasized: "We want imams to be involved in the dialogue between religions and to discuss questions of faith in our society."
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The German government's agreement with Turkey aims to phase out the dispatch of Turkish imams, who serve as civil servants and often have limited understanding of German society. This change will gradually replace these imams with ones trained within Germany, primarily for mosques affiliated with Ditib.
Furthermore, the German government is planning to support additional imam training in Germany, focusing on German language, Islamic studies, and German history and values to encourage a deeper understanding and integration within German society.
Source: www.ntv.de
