University Courses for Muslim Prayer Leaders

France is to lay on university courses for Muslim prayer leaders to teach them about the French way of life. The move announced by Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin is aimed at better integrating France's imams. By Alasdair Sandford

It follows concern that some Muslim clerics have been preaching a fundamentalist form of Islam; earlier this year several imams were expelled from France. From next September all future imams will have to learn about French law, civics and history.

The case made national headlines over a period of several months. Abdelkader Bouziane, a Muslim preacher from Lyon, was deported after a long court battle following an interview he gave, apparently endorsing wife-beating.

The 52-year-old Algerian told a local magazine earlier this year that violence against unfaithful wives was justified by the Koran.

Mr Bouziane tried to limit the damage, saying he respected French law which he acknowledged made wife-beating illegal. But that didn't alter the outcry caused by his original comments. At least three other clerics have suffered the same fate this year, after a crackdown on radical preaching.

Number of radical Muslims is low, says government

About ten percent of France's five million Muslims are regular worshippers. The government stresses that the number of radical Muslims with a fundamentalist view of the religion is relatively low – about seven thousand.

The vast majority of preachers, it says, promote a peaceful and tolerant view of Islam.

Now the Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin wants to make sure future disputes and expulsions can be avoided. He says three quarters of France's twelve hundred imams don't have French nationality, and it's unacceptable that a third don't speak French.

From next year Muslim clerics will have to learn the language, and receive further education in other courses at French universities, while existing Islamic institutes will teach theology.

Incorporating Muslim teaching into French life

At the European Institute of Human Science, in effect a private Muslim university in a Paris suburb, lessons on family law are taught. The institute belongs to an umbrella group of organisations that oversee sixty percent of France's mosques.

Would-be preachers spend four years studying the Koran and Muslim law. The centre is likely to feature in the government's plan for training future clerics.

The goal isn't only to understand our religion, says Farouk Benslama, a theology student, it's to understand our religion and in a way to transplant it into the society we live in.

The overall aim is to incorporate Muslim teaching into French life, and in particular by neutering the influence of radical preachers who've made significant impressions on many of France's young Muslims.

It's not certain at this stage though that all Muslim organisations will endorse the government's stance.

Alasdair Sandford