After the murder of Father Jacques Hamel by two French jihadists calling themselves the Islamic State, the question of the organization of Islam in France is restarted. Manuel Valls called, in an article in the JDD, to “completely rethink the training of imams and chaplains.” “France has become a center of excellence in teaching Islamic theology,” said the Prime Minister, which states: “The state does not have to take care of theology, but it can help creating ‘solid training institutions based on the open university degrees including Paris or Strasbourg Aix. the imams and chaplains in France will now only be trained in France “.
” Organize islam France, this is not the Lépine contest “
However, there is a year, France was the first European country to have entrusted his Moroccan imams to institute a supposed offer of Islam” middle, “consistent with the principles of secularism.
the successive round trips of political discourse illustrate the failure of France to solve the puzzle of the training of imams. We interviewed Roman Sèze, sociologist of contemporary Islam, researcher at INHESJ (National Institute of Advanced Studies of the security and justice) and author of “Being imam in France “(Editions du Cerf).
What is the profile of imams in France today? Are Has he vocations?
There is no one path that leads to the Imamate in France. We can distinguish several cases:
- The immigrants came to occupy the often unskilled and become imams by practical necessity, the famous “imams-workers”
- young people who have received religious sciences (with significant disparities in levels) in a Muslim country, that there are no post -Without sometimes sufficient opening of the market workers who immigrate to France without necessarily seeking to become an imam and who find an opportunity;
- the imams posted abroad by consular networks or affiliated with transnational organizations;
- a few young people who were trained in institutes in France.
- self-taught (and here we find quite different trajectories)
This can give an overview, but do not exhaust the diversity of access routes to the imamate in France.
and no, there are few vocations, not least because it is a profession increasingly demanding, in terms of training in particular, for which he must accept being exploited at will thank you, and without necessarily being well paid. We understand that this perspective fairly deceive young people.
Why France she has always needed to call on foreign countries to train its imams?
These partnerships with the countries of origin back to the 1980s, when the mosques are beginning to really emerge in France. This is a time marked by events that will involve the issue of Islam this process of organization for security-related concerns (Iranian revolution series of attacks between 1985 and 1986 …) and integrationist (sedentary and generational renewal) .
in this context, the issue of imams is already that of their influence: avoid their relay of violence, and try to offer their supposed influence to promote integration.
Being unable to massively train imams in France, the French state will rely on the leadership of the country, especially in Algeria and Turkey that have body fonctionnarisés imams. imams detachments agreements are signed in the 1980s with those countries that provide training, recruitment, and to some extent control the imams.
Since when France is she interested in the training of imams? Q ual initiatives have been implemented in recent years and with what success?
The first initiatives emerging in the 1990s inaugurates the UOIF European Institute of Human Sciences in 1991. the Institute of Islamic Studies in Paris opens its doors in 1993. the Institute of Graduate Studies and religious training and theological of the Paris Mosque (al-Ghazali Institute) is inaugurated in 1994. These institutes are struggling to massively produce imams, and the state quickly sought alternative projects.
Professor Ali Merad submits a project in 1989 which proposes to exploit the benefits of the restructuring plan that historian Etienne Trocmé resumed in 1996, but it did not succeed.
the project of an institute of studies of Islam was founded in 1998 and culminate in 1999 on the creation the Institute of Studies of Islam and the Muslim World Societies, which is rather an academic space, which also makes the quality of training for professionals.
the idea of distinguishing a theological education, provided by religious, educational and non religious , by lay teachers, appears under the mandate of Chevènement to the Ministry of the Interior (1997-2000). She met some reluctance, before being taken by the CFCM, which has just been made official in 2003, to set up additional training within the university. But the project was born in 2008, thanks to the Central Bureau of Religious Affairs that creates the university degree “Interculturalism, Secularism and Religion” in the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the Catholic Institute of Paris. These OF began to spread in various universities, and Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced new creations in March 2015. Moreover, the agreement with Rabat provides that graduates spend one of these DU back in France .
signing in 2015 with a cooperation agreement Institute Mohammed VI in Rabat on the training of imams, Francois Hollande, in fact, approved the merits Islam taught in Morocco, an Islam said the “middle”. Is this Islam that could be taught in France?
I do not know enough about Morocco to give you a precise answer. But in fact, it tends to homogenize Islam too Muslim countries, as everywhere, is diverse, although it is of Maliki legal tradition. In France also, Islam is diverse, but the state has for decades in search of a civil Islam, put into perspective by values that promote living together. For the Institute Mohammed VI, issue a bearer of Islam “openness and tolerance values.”
In addition, the agreement with Morocco is in total contradiction with the Manuel Valls will train all imams in France …
it is indeed a paradox that sociologists and political scientists have pointed out for years. But the signing of agreements imams detachments in the 1980s never seemed satisfactory for either state, which has therefore sought to develop training in France. Train imams in Morocco remains a solution, in part for lack of better.
In Morocco, at the school of French imams
If the issue of training of imams is posed after a reality marked by attacks is that we believe they can help fight against terrorism. Is that correct?
The question of the influence that the imams could or should exert found new relevance in 2014 and 2015. The government has recently initiated a major strategic shift in fighting against radicalization and not only against terrorism, the use of the term ‘radicalization’ is very recent in the French political debate. This was to fight against process that accompanies the transition to violence and not only the violence itself, experimenting preventive and not punitive measures.
This implies mobilize socialization forums, including the imams that focus sustained attention again. This is even more logical that radicalization is diagnosed, to some extent, as the result of “integration problem” and that the imams are seen as actors who can play a positive influence in this regard .
in addition, to the extent that Salafism is considered a learning airlock rigor and intolerance which has so violence (however this is subject to debate) the fight against radicalization also involves a struggle against Salafism
Faced with Islam: the debate Michel Onfray – Fethi Benslama
Jihadism. Gilles Kepel answers Olivier Roy:
the involvement of imams in the fight against jihadism can he be paid?
Young people who become radicalized are wary of imams and stop attending the mosque, as is certainly the situation today. Many imams are mobilizing against radicalization, but they also say they have no miracle to hold the young radicalized. The fact is that we can not reduce the government’s action against radicalization in this initiative. It is complex as it tries to act simultaneously on different levers: issue of imams, but also against speech, mobilization of Education …
Interview by Sarah Diffalah
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