Imam education idea takes a step forward

Muslims are praying here at the Witikon cemetery in Zurich Keystone Archive

Swiss churches have proposed that Imams who lead prayers in Swiss mosques should be educated at universities in Switzerland.

But Ueli Maurer, president of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, says that there is “no place” for Islamic courses in a Christian country like Switzerland.

The plan to educate Imams was put forward by the Swiss Bishops’ Conference and the Swiss Protestant Church Federation.

Agnell Rickmann, secretary-general of the Bishops’ Conference, said he was “convinced” it would make sense to create structures for a course for prayer leaders, in an interview with the ‘NZZ am Sonntag’ newspaper.

Rickmann, who is head of a working group including both Catholics and Muslims, said the training was a “reasonable demand”.

One of the leaders of the Protestant Church Federation, Markus Sahli, argued that for the integration of Muslims in a liberal society such as Switzerland’s, it was important that their spiritual leaders were not simply “flown in from anywhere”.

Customs and traditions

Sahli said that such training would familiarise Imams with one of Switzerland’s languages, and with the country’s customs and traditions. It would also include the role of women in Swiss society.

A university education course would also help Islamic spiritual leaders to “look critically at their own position”, he added.

The proposal for training courses for Imams was originally an idea from Muslims themselves. Farhad Afshar, who is president of the coordination centre of Islamic organisations in Switzerland, put forward project ideas years ago to the universities of Bern, Basel, Lucerne and Geneva.

Basel University looked into the plans four years ago but they were put on ice because of what were termed “difficulties of organisational integration”.

But now there is movement on the issue, with the idea of creating an Imam training course in the city.

Two of the four political parties in the Swiss government have supported the education plans.

Equal treatment

The president of the Social Democratic Party, Hans-Jürg Fehr, said he backed “equal treatment of religions”.

In view of the number of Muslims in Switzerland, there was a “need for a well-educated people”, he added.

And Doris Leuthard, president of the Christian Democrats, said she hoped for positive results from any such training.

However, Maurer from the Swiss People’s Party is fundamentally opposed to the idea.

“Switzerland is a Christian country,” he said without compromise, arguing there was “no place” in it for Islamic courses at state universities.

Maurer added that he did not believe that Imams educated in Switzerland would be any less radical than their colleagues from abroad.

“A certain fanaticism is simply part of this religion. Studying in Switzerland will not change that,” he added.

The delicate issue of radical Islamism may come up for discussion at the winter session of the Swiss parliament in Bern.

Christian Democratic MP Maurice Chervrier has urged the government to state its position, asking whether it considers radical Islamism to be “a threat” and if it will call for a study on the issue.

swissinfo, based on article previously published by NZZ

Key facts

According to the census of 2000, there are 310,000 Muslims resident in Switzerland.
170,000 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 62,000 from Turkey and more than 15,000 come from North Africa and the Middle East.
They account for 4.3 per cent of the total population.
But it is believed that there are more than 400,000 in Switzerland because some are not registered with the authorities or have no residence permit.

In brief

For the first time, a member of the Swiss cabinet spoke on Sunday in the current debate on Islam.

Transport minister Moritz Leuenberger admitted in a television interview that there was a danger of an anti-Islamic sentiment in Switzerland.

People had to distinguish what religion was and what individuals made of it, he commented.

The idea from the Netherlands to allow only those Imams who had visited a school in Europe to preach was one approach to prevent calls for violence.