THE
HAGUE, March 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Dutch Muslims have urged
the government to adopt their own version of qualifying and training
imams with some help from experts and specialists across Dutch
universities.
“The
Muslim Council of the Netherlands, which liaise with the government on
behalf of the Muslim minority, held talks on February 18, 19 with
Dutch officials to direct the qualification programs for imams and
preachers,” the Council’s deputy Secretary General, Edris Boujoufi,
told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, March 1.
“We
are now addressing how to translate the recommendations of these talks
into action, including the right of the Muslim minority to prepare
their imams with the help of Dutch experts and socialists.”
There
are some 450 mosques in the Netherlands, 1,000 Islamic cultural
centers, two Islamic universities and 42 preparatory schools,
according to recent estimates.
Muslims
make up one million of the Netherlands’s 16 million population.
Turks represent 80 percent of the Muslim minority.
Dutch
Muslims were reportedly subjected to religious discrimination and
racist attacks on their places of worship in 2004.
Even
before the November killing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, following his
insulting documentary about Islam, Dutch Muslims have been targeted by
the extremist agenda of the influential right-wing parties.
Interference
 |
|
Verdonk’s
interference into Muslims’ affairs violates the secular nature
of the Western countries, particularly the Netherlands,” said
Boujoufi.
|
Boujoufi
roundly rejected Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk’s plan on imams
and immigrants, regarding it as a ruse to interfere into Muslims’
affairs.
Along
with qualifying imams, the plan would make everyone who has not spent
eight years in the Netherlands during the period of compulsory
education (from six to the age of 16) take integration classes.
The
government has so far put forward 10 plans to qualify imams, but
endorsed last month a program introduced by Amsterdam University.
The
government will grant the university 1.5 million euros to that end and
decided to deny visas to imams as of 2008, according to an education
ministry’s official.
“Verdonk’s
interference into the Muslim affairs violates the secular nature of
the Western countries, particularly the Netherlands,” Moroccan-born
Boujoufi added.
“It
takes 10 years to prepare a qualified and professional imam and not
just one year as suggested by the minister.”
Representatives
of the Turkish minority, on their part, said they are committed to an
agreement signed between the Turkish and Amsterdam governments,
entitling Ankara to qualify and train imams for the Turks in the
European country.
The
issue of imams training has recently taken central stage in several
European countries.
Major
Swiss Christian groups put forward a proposal to establish a
government-supervised institute to educate imams on the “liberal”
lifestyle in western societies, which split Muslim activists in the
country down the middle.
German
integration minister Marieluise Beck has released a 20-point strategy
recommending that imams coming to Germany should have knowledge of the
German language and society.
French
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin pressed last year for teaching
imams the French language and culture.
