Lyon Imams Undergo Training on French Law and Secularism

Abdelmadjid Ariouat, an Algerian and volunteer imam at the Saint-Priest mosque, is one of the beneficiaries of these trainings. He follows his courses at the French Institute of Muslim Civilization (IFCM), a center that strengthens the capacities of religious leaders on French law, other religions and secularism. "This year, we decided to participate in this training because secularism must be understood in order to explain it [...], it is time that we give the right explanation to the majority of people who ask questions," he says.

"Imams have to face complex questions from their faithful, mostly young people, who have gone through the school of the Republic... An imam must have answers to propose to these questions and he cannot be content with the recipes learned in the faculty of theology which are not connected with the needs and expectations of French citizens of Muslim faith," explains Bruno Abd-al-Haqq Guiderdoni, a teacher at IFCM, justifying the relevance of these two-year teachings.

For Kamel Kabtane, president of the Council of Mosques of the Rhône, it is important "today to train the imams for the future" because, he insists, the training of imams in France aims to protect against the instrumentalization of Islam for political purposes. The ultimate goal is to train all the imams of France (2,000 including 300 foreigners from Morocco, Turkey and Algeria) by 2024.

Moreover, the issue of financing these trainings is problematic. While imams from abroad are paid by their country of origin, those from France receive nothing, laments Mohamed Miloudi, president of the cultural association of the Saint-Priest mosque. In the same vein, the president of the theological council of the imams of the Rhône supports that "the mosques and in particular the small mosques, do not have the financial capacity to take charge of the imams".