The German Interior Ministry has adopted a new initiative to phase out a training program that assigns Turkish imams to German mosques, DW reported on Thursday.
According to the source, Germany looks to train its own Muslim clerics in a bid to encourage integration, as the issue of Turkish-trained imams has been a source of tension between Berlin and Ankara.
Under a new agreement between the ministry, Turkish religious authority Diyanet and Turkish-Islamic umbrella group DITIB, about 100 imams are to be trained each year in the western town of Dahlem.
These imams will gradually replace the approximately 1,000 clerics which were trained and employed by the Turkish Diyanet.
“We need religious leaders who speak our language, know our country and stand up for our values,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.
“We want imams to get involved in the dialogue between religions and discuss questions of faith in our society,” Faeser said.
According to the German Islam Conference (DIK), there are about 5.5 million Muslims living in Germany, or roughly 6.6% of the population. “This is an important milestone for the integration and participation of Muslim communities,” Faeser said.
Germany has about 2,500 mosque communities, 900 of which are managed by DITIB. A branch of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Ankara, DITIB is the largest Islamic association in Germany but it has been accused of acting as an extended arm of the Turkish government.
