Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday in Mulhouse that France will gradually stop welcoming "seconded imams" sent by other countries, such as Turkey and Algeria, while increasing the number of imams trained in France. In addition to these 300 detached imams, the Head of State also announced, during a trip to Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) devoted to the fight against "Islamist separatism", that the reception of the 300 or so will be ended. chanters "received each year during the Ramadan period.
To meet the needs for imams in mosques, France welcomes "seconded imams" from other countries and financed by them, within the framework of bilateral agreements. There are thus around 300 permanent staff, of whom 150 come from Turkey, 120 from Algeria and around thirty from Morocco, the main countries of origin of the 4 to 5 million Muslims in France. These religious form a small part of the number of imams in France - often volunteers or even itinerant - officiating in the 2,500 places of Muslim worship. This number is not precisely known but is estimated at around 1,800 imams.
"Making a plan against Islam would be a deep mistake"
"Our enemy is separatism" but "making a plan against Islam would be a big mistake," said Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday. "Islamist separatism is incompatible with freedom and equality, incompatible with the indivisibility of the Republic and the necessary unity of the nation," said the head of state in a speech to local officials and residents of the Bourtzwiller district. But "it is not a question of stigmatizing some religion. And what we have to do is not, as I have sometimes heard in some people, a plan against Islam. It would be a deep fault", a -he added after exchanging with the police, elected officials and heads of associations in the neighborhood.
"In the Republic, we cannot accept that we refuse to shake a woman's hand because she is a woman; in the Republic, we cannot accept that someone refuses to be treated or educated by someone one; in the Republic, one cannot accept dropping out of school; in the Republic, one cannot require certificates of virginity to marry; in the Republic, one must never accept that the laws of religion can be superior to the laws of the Republic, it's that simple, "said the President of the Republic.