State-sponsored Islam: Germany's first cohort of locally trained imams can't find work

State-sponsored Islam: Germany's first cohort of locally trained imams can't find work

    Monday, October 02, 2023   No comments

To counter what it describes as "the large number of foreign-trained Islamic religious leaders", Germany creates its own training school for imams, essentially participating in state-sponsored religious training. 

Germany announced four years ago that it would create a state-backed training center for Islamic leaders to help reduce the number of imams coming in from abroad, mostly Turkey. 

According to German authorities, “Germany currently has between 2,000 to 2,500 Islamic religious leaders, who tend to come to Germany for four or five years.”

Together, with French ban on Islamic dress in public schools, this state-sponsored religious training creates even more confusion as to whether Europe wants the state to distance itself from religion in the name of secularism or the state defining what kind of religion is allowed and who should religious institutions. These problems u underscore Europe's struggle with extending rights and freedoms to persons and communities who are from their former colonies. 

Ignoring the way Muslims are being treated in Europe, Western governments often criticize other countries for their treatment of Muslims. For example, China came under pressure from Western governments accusing the former of violating Chinese Muslims’ rights for forcing them to go through “re-education” programs. Apparently, it is not acceptable for China to “re-educate” Muslims, but it is acceptable for European governments to ban Muslims from public schools unless they dress like Europeans and create state-sponsored Imam training programs.

The instrumentalization of human rights by governments does not diminish the forced assimilations Muslims face.