If France wants to abolish the system of "detached imams" from abroad, it will have to "find a solution" to avoid leaving its mosques "at the mercy of fundamentalists," said the delegate general of the Center français du Muslim worship (CFCM). The day before, during a trip devoted to "Islamist separatism", Emmanuel Macron announced that France would end the reception of some 300 imams sent to France by various countries (Morocco, Turkey, Algeria ...) and increase in parallel the number of imams trained in France.
It plans to do so by 2024, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Wednesday morning. "I don't know if it is feasible or not," said the general delegate of the French center for Muslim worship (CFCM) Abdallah Zekri. "It may work, but other imams will have to be trained."
Not opposite
Without opposing the government's plan, Abdallah Zekri stresses that the secondment system has a significant advantage: the imams, who stay for several years, come through bilateral conventions, are known and their speeches are followed by the French authorities . These 250 to 300 imams - some 70 from Algeria, 50 from Morocco and 120/130 from Turkey - are added in France to 600 other employees directly by mosques, he underlines.
These detachments "never posed a problem: not one is stuck in S (NDLR for radicalization), has committed a terrorist act or has made speeches" extremists or anti-republicans, he said. “But if they leave without being replaced, it can cause problems. Another solution must be found so as not to let these mosques live without an imam and, above all, delivered to self-proclaimed imams whose origins and speeches are unknown. "
Nearly 2,700 mosques
To avoid this, "we must train more imams in France who know the laws of the Republic, secularism, etc.", and increase the number of training centers, insists Abdallah Zekri. Resources will also have to be found to pay the new imams, the seconded ones being paid by their country of origin, "which makes a considerable saving for the mosques", he says. "If the state wants to have republican French imams, it must put its hand in the pocket".
France has a total of 2,500 to 2,700 mosques, and in those without an imam, "prayers are provided by faithful volunteers who know the Koran," said Abdallah Zekri.
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