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Europe
Europe planning to rein in imams
2004-11-18
With concern growing about radical Islam in their midst, governments in western Europe are debating how to ensure that Muslim prayer leaders preach in the local language and spread messages of moderation rather than hate.
  • The killing two weeks ago of film-maker Theo van Gogh, an outspoken critic of Islam, has prompted Dutch parliamentarians to call for a ban on foreign imams in future and for the local training of preachers committed to Western ideals of tolerance.

  • In Belgium, Flemish Interior Minister Marino Keulen wants obligatory civics and language courses for foreign-born imams, who are the vast majority there - as elsewhere in Europe - and mostly preach in Arabic.

  • France, frontrunner in the drive to develop a European Islam immune to fundamentalist rhetoric from the Middle East, told its Muslim leaders on Tuesday to come up with a plan soon for educating new generations of Western-thinking imams locally.
Muslim leaders complain that the silent majority of peaceful believers is suspect because of a tiny radical fringe. But most support this effort both to reassure their governments and to guard against radicals trying to woo their flocks astray. This focus on imams reflects a recognition across Europe that officials have long ignored the faith of their marginalised underclass and the influence some preachers could have. But they do know most imams are poorly educated immigrants and that some are trained and funded by Arab states to preach an ultra-conservative Islam that clashes with Western concepts of tolerance, equality and justice.

Despite its strict separation of church and state, France is aiming at a hybrid curriculum with imams-to-be learning their theology in private Islamic institutes while studying French history and law at the Sorbonne or other state universities. After the Van Gogh murder, the Dutch cabinet proposed shutting down mosques that preach hate. Van Gogh angered Muslims with his film Submission criticising Islam for its treatment of women. Keulen said Muslims there had been "coddled too much" and their imams must "speak our language and know how our society works". Italy's Interior Minister Guiseppe Pisanu recently hailed moderate Muslims as "natural allies in the war on terrorism". The Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people last March prompted Spain and several other European countries to look more closely at what was being said in their mosques. In July, Britain's Home Secretary David Blunkett said imams would soon have to pass a basic English test before being able to preach. He also wanted a civics test for them in future.
Posted by:Fred

#16  
Re #13 (BMN): Mr Sylwester, did you not see this at the university you attended as well?

I majored in Slavic languages. Everybody I knew was very anti-Communist.

I remember that the biggest group of political radicals were the Iranian students. We had lots of them at the University of Oregon.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester   2004-11-18 9:26:35 PM  

#15  It would indeed be a shame if the French neglected their history, since history is all they have now. The EU isn't exactly setting people's souls on fire, and shooting unarmed Africans is hardly the Battle of Austerlitz.
Posted by: Onionman   2004-11-18 12:09:34 PM  

#14  The people in need of an education in Europe are the non-Islamic ones who apparently never learned about the Thirty Years War. A shame when a people neglects its own history.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2004-11-18 11:37:27 AM  

#13  I attended Columbia, Harvard, and the UC--lots of dictator admirers at all three schools. Mr Sylwester, did you not see this at the university you attended as well?
Posted by: BMN   2004-11-18 11:36:06 AM  

#12  Suha went to the Sorbonne.

I went to the University of California, Berkeley.

So there.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-11-18 11:30:52 AM  

#11  thanks Mikey, what insight...
Posted by: Frank G   2004-11-18 10:55:09 AM  

#10  Just goes to show that while something is rotten in Europe, it's not Denmark.
Posted by: anonymous2u   2004-11-18 10:50:57 AM  

#9  Only one really successfully acted on "turning out like Pol Pot". If you mean "back-to-the-land socialists" who would compell others "for their own good", the indication is a fair percentage.
Posted by: Dishman   2004-11-18 10:35:30 AM  

#8  I would suggest the states of western europe work together, as there are substantial economies of scale in University education, and its difficult for a Holland to support the kind of institution envisioned.

The model here would be the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, Germany, and its namesake in New York, which attempted (successfully, IMO) to meld classical Jewish learning (which also involved heavy memorization of texts) with modern Western approaches, and produced Rabbis at home in Western culture. (of course these were created by private Jewish initiative not at the whim of the state. In Russia state attempts were made, with considerably less success)JTS Breslau, IIUC, sent rabbis not only to Germany, but to the Czech lands, Hungary, etc. This reduced the impact in these lands of rabbis educated in the more "backward" yeshivas of poland and Lithuania.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-11-18 9:38:43 AM  

#7  
Re #4 (Kalle): Studying at European universities is not a cure against tyranny, terror, and totalitarianism. ... Pol Pot was educated at Sorbonne ....

I wonder how many people have been educated at Sorbonne in the history of that university. I wonder what percent turned out like Pol Pot.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester   2004-11-18 9:26:11 AM  

#6  These plans presume an awful lot -- like the ability of the imams to read, write and think at the university level... in any language. For too many of them their claim to fame is the rote memorization of the Koran in Arabic, which calls for neither critical thinking skills nor even the ability to understand the sounds emerging from one's mouth. But the very act of requiring formal education indicates that society has standards of behaviour even for these pampered persons, so perhaps there will be some effect (besides seething, I mean).
Posted by: trailing wife   2004-11-18 4:00:31 AM  

#5   Sure, like they'll tell them they can't ride the train one day a year. (Iman's choice) Euros are like Arabs, BIG on talk, little on action.
Posted by: 98zulu   2004-11-18 2:38:42 AM  

#4  Studying at European universities is not a cure against tyranny, terror, and totalitarianism. Far from it.

For instance, Pol Pot was educated at Sorbonne, which is the main university campus in Paris. Other famous graduates of Sorbonne: Michel Aflaq, father of Baathism; Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path terrorists in Peru.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever)   2004-11-18 1:21:35 AM  

#3  Well, .com, in certain circumstances, it goes around the neck while horse is underneath.

Then from a distance of 10 ft, you call the equinus sweet names and offer some favored snack.

I forgotten a tree and a thick, strong branch. They are important too, in the grand scheme of things..
Posted by: Cornîliës   2004-11-18 12:40:36 AM  

#2  You sure the reins go on like that - around the neck? I've saddled horses a few thousand times and our bridle rigs were a little different, lol!
Posted by: .com   2004-11-18 12:23:53 AM  

#1  Try hanging a few.
Posted by: mojo   2004-11-18 12:21:03 AM  

00:00