France will stop accepting new seconded imams, meaning those sent by other countries, from January 1, 2024, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in a letter to countries affected by the decision.
After April 1, 2024, these prominent spiritual leaders still present in the territory will no longer be able to remain “in this status,” the French government added in a letter published by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
At the beginning of 2020, Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to stop accepting about 300 imams sent from different countries such as Algeria, Turkey or Morocco, and at the same time increase the number of imams trained in France.
“We are working to put an end to seconded imams in 2024,” stressed then-Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.
Recalling this three-year “advance notice” to give mosques and states time to organize themselves, Gérald Darmanin insisted on the calendar proposed today: the decision “will be effectively applied from January 1, 2024.”
Specifically, this means that from this date France “will no longer accept new seconded imams.”
For those already in the country, they will have to change their status, and from April 1, a “specific framework” will be created to allow associations running places of worship to hire their own imams, who will pay directly.
The goal is not to prevent foreign imams from preaching in France, but to ensure that none of them receive a salary from a foreign country in which they are a civil servant or government agent.
On the other hand, the arrival of the “Imams of Ramadan”, about 300 singers and readers who travel to France during the Muslim holy month, “is not in doubt”, the letter says.
It emphasizes the need for an “increased proportion” of imams working in the territory to undergo “at least partial training in France.”
This requires the development of training, and the state wants to be attentive to ensure a rapid expansion of the offer, “respecting the laws and principles of the French Republic.”
Beyond religious education, it is also about supporting imams’ access to university training, such as the one launched in 2023 by the French Institute of Islamology.
Determined to fight “Islamic separatism,” President Emmanuel Macron announced a series of measures in February 2020 against “foreign influence” on Islam in France, ranging from prominent imams to mosque funding.
To better organize Muslim worship, the Forum of Islam in France (Forif) was also launched in February 2022, with local actors present to better represent the country’s second religion.
But the organization is struggling to establish itself in the fragmented landscape of Islam in France.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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