“Imams must ask questions, but the current climate is counterproductive”

The cross the weekly : Today in France, what is the profession of imam?

Azzedine Gaci: The imam has a cult role, but he also plays a very important social function. At the mosque, he directed the five daily prayers and made the Friday sermon. Many of them also provide permanence for the faithful who come to request a fatwa (a legal opinion, editor’s note) or an orientation. He accompanies the converts to prevent them from falling into bad hands. He is also a mediator: we come to see him to solve couple problems, family conflicts, or simply to talk about his difficulties. Finally, he can participate in a council of imams in his department or in interreligious dialogue. But not all do everything: some are content to direct the prayers.

Muslim officials regularly regret the absence of a status for imams in France. What does this mean and what problems does it make concretely?

AG: No existing legal status is today suitable for imams: the status of minister of worship is not suitable since, unlike priests, imams often have a family and would need to be entitled to unemployment. The general scheme also poses difficulties since regardless of the employment contract, the imam cannot comply with legal amplitude. He works mainly on weekends and partly at night: from April, the fifth prayer takes place around 11 p.m. (or even more) and the first at 4 am. One of the consequences of this lack of status is that the imam does not feel recognized or respected. Many are paid in the slingshot, are not declared. The result is that young people flee this profession. We have come to the conclusion that you need specific adaptations of the statutes and, for this, a political will.

How are imams trained who officiate in the country today?

AG: In the Rhône department, I did a study: out of fifty imams, only six had theological training in good and due form, in the sense of a solid academic curriculum in an Islamic university, as there are in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria. The vast majority of French imams are self -taught: they have carried out right and left in France, but most of them are not a diploma. For the imams to be trained in France, it would take both a theological course and a profane university training in human sciences, with philosophy, history, law, etc. This is partly provided by university degrees on secularism that are offered in a large number of universities.

As for theological training, as there is no representative body of Islam in France, nothing really serious exists. To create an institute worthy of the name, it would take very important funding. Other brakes are added, such as the diversity of schools of thought in France and the rivalries of our countries of origin …

What consequences does this lack of training have on their way of applying to French society sometimes very old texts?

AG: It is true that, for lack of training, many imams fail to contextualize Koranic verses. Personally, I have drawn up a list of 15 questions that are angry to which imams should be able to answer. For example: how to explain the Koranic verses of Sura 9, which are very violent with regard to non-Muslims? Or the texts that approach the question of women, inheritance, of the relationship with the Jews, with the non-Muslims? It is absolutely necessary to be able to contextualize certain Koranic verses in order to be able to explain them and take our distance from their literal sense. This is the work I would like to do with imams.

But when you have no university training or in human sciences, how do you want to properly interpret these texts to be in line with the French society today? It’s very complicated. The current climate does not help: with the number of imams that have been expelled in recent years, a terrible fear reigns in mosques. Imams do not approach the subjects that should be worked, for fear that it attracts them in trouble, that words go out in the press, etc. Admittedly, they must ask questions, but this climate is counterproductive. This is a shame because despite everything, the imam remains locally the largest representative of Islam in France.