German university launches training for imams

OSNABRUECK, Germany — Ahmed Sami spoke only Arabic when he moved from Morocco to Germany eight years ago to work as an imam. During his Friday prayer services at a mosque in western Germany, he soon noticed that many of the listeners could not understand him.

"The children and teenagers don't speak a lot of Arabic anymore," the 31-year-old imam said. "German is their native language."

Now Sami's part of a pilot program at the University of Osnabrueck that started this week to train imams — not only in the German language but also to steer them to preach about Islam in a way consistent with Germany's democratic values and religious tolerance.

It comes at a time of growing concern about some young German Muslims becoming radicalized in extremist mosques and turning to terrorism. This month's terror alert in Europe was sparked by information provided by a German radical of Afghan descent who had been captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"We need imams who are socialized and at home in Germany," said Rauf Ceylan, a professor for Islamic religious education and one of the founders of the new program in Osnabrueck, in northwestern Germany. "They influence the religious orientation of Muslims in Germany, they have a big impact on whether young Muslims will practice a tolerant, conservative or extremist version of Islam."

Other European countries have been taking new measures as well. In France, which has a Muslim population of at least five million, the Catholic University of Paris began courses to train French imams in 2008; several imams have been expelled in recent years for what was deemed dangerous teaching.

Experts say the new German academic initiative is much needed. So far, over 90 percent of the more than 2,000 imams in Germany barely speak any German. Most come from Turkey and only stay here for a couple of years before going back home. Due to the language barrier, these foreign-sent imams can't interact with younger community members and they are also not aware of the specific problems the 4.3 million Muslims in Germany deal with on an everyday basis.

Imams hold key positions within the immigrant communities. Just like pastors or rabbis they deliver religious guidance, but they are also the first contact point for parents' worries when the children don't perform well in school, they mediate in marital disputes or get involved in cultural clashes with the Christian majority in Germany.