Building bridges

Fifteen imams started coursework this week as part of "Imams for Integration," a four-month program designed to make them fluent in German culture as well as language.

Most of Germany's imams grew up and received their religious training outside of Germany, often in Turkey. Turkey's religious affairs office regularly sends theologians to over 800 DITIB-affiliated mosques here, but few come with German language skills.

"Imams for Integration" is a joint initiative organized by the Goethe Institute, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), and the German association of Turkish Muslim congregations, DITIB.

"Imams can play an important and integration-supporting role as bridge-builders and mediators between incoming migrants and the majority society," said migration office president Albert Schmid.

A study commissioned by the office in 2006 found that there are between 3.8 million and 4.3 million Muslims in Germany, amounting to about 5 percent of the total population.

Role models for co-religionists

Starting with the 15 participants in Nuremberg, organizers hope to expand the project to include 135 men and women (who can also act as prayer leaders in Islam) in nine cities within the next three years.

The program consists of 500 hours of German language instruction and 12 days of lessons about intercultural and German topics, such as the powers of the state, life in a pluralistic society, religious diversity, the educational system, migration, and community work.

The linguistic-cultural barrier not only hinders communication between the imams and German secular society, but also makes it harder to communicate with German-speaking members of the congregation whose Turkish is limited or nonexistent. And if imams don't understand how Germany's educational or social services work, it can be difficult to offer the advice or comfort those members are looking for.

"The course offered here is aimed at experts, at people with an established theological background, who have an ability to act as role models for those who trust them," Sadi Arslan, the director of the DITIB, told German press agency dpa. "We aspire to learn the language, and therefore open doors to a whole new world."

The program inaugurated Thursday in Nuremburg isn't the only one aimed at providing imams trained abroad with a German education. The University of Osnabrueck has offered courses in Islamic religious instruction since 2008, and this summer the state of Lower Saxony announced plans to offer continuing education for imams.

svs/epd/dpa
Editor: Susan Houlton