Besson favours university training for imams

The French Minister for Immigration and Integration Eric Besson said on Tuesday that he hopes two provincial universities will be able to offer training courses for future imams next year.Besson was speaking at the Catholic Institute of Paris, which has had a course in “Religions, secularism and interculturalism” since January 2008.

French Minister for Immigration and Integration Eric Besson Reuters

The course in Paris covers subjects such as French history, French law, human rights, religions in France and secularism. The university takes in about 20 trainee chaplains and imams as students every year.

Besson said he hopes that two new courses of the same type could be set up outside Paris, from which “50 religious and cultural officials” could graduate each year.

He said discussions were ongoing about which two regional universities the courses might take place in.