France Resorts To Algerian Imams To Counter Extremism

Over 40 Algerian imams are graduating, here on Thursday, after the end of their training for their assignment in France and supervision of the mosques in different parts of the French Republic, as the dean of the Paris Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, and the head of the Office of Religions at the French Interior Ministry, Arnaud Schaumasse, will attend the graduation ceremony.

Ministry of Religious Affairs reported that the graduation will be in Dar El Imam (House of Imams) at the presence of the Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Mohamed Issa, noting that the imams received a religious training, and another in the French language, history and laws of religious and cultural associations, while they will be sent to be assigned in the coming days once the issuance of their visas.

It is clear that the French official attendance reflects the pressing need of Paris to Algerian imams because of their competence, stressing that the mayors in France ask for and are keen to dispatch Algerian imams under the supervision of the Grand Mosque of Paris, where the French authorities are counting on them in their mission to curb the escalation of extremism and to highlight the tolerant consoling Islam.

Sources that are linked to the file told Echorouk that the French labour in Lyon, for example, closed in the recent period a number of mosques that belong to the territories of this province by the governor because they are conducted by of the party Salafis Imams, explaining that the governor before the reopening of the mosques again asked for the assignment of Algerian imams under the supervision of the Paris grand mosque.

Graduating Imams will benefit, upon their arrival to France from additional training, where they will be deployed to a number of French universities, based on the bilateral agreement between the Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments and the French Interior Ministry in December 2014.