DAR AL HARB - FRANCE: ROMAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY TO TRAIN IMAMS - - - THIS TYPE OF INSANITY NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE

Focus - Imam course at Catholic university sparks controversy

Paris, 1 Feb. (AKI) - The president of France's largest Muslim group the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF), Thami Breze, and other prominent Muslims have defended a new course for would-be imams at the Catholic Insitute in Paris.

"Why attach such importance to the location of this course?" said Breze to Adnkronos International (AKI), referring to recent media controversy about the course.

"These people are students, not imams."

Djelloul Sedeki, director of the al-Ghazali institute for the training of imams in Paris which has fed into the new course told AKI that the Catholic Institute was the only place that had agreed to host it.

Other French institutions, including the Sorbonne, Paris 8 and other state universities had declined to be involved, citing the strict separation of Church and State which prohibits any kind of proselytising in public buildings.

Sedeki dismissed qualms expressed by some Muslims at the choice of venue for the course."The lessons at the Catholic Institute do not in any way clash with the training programme for imams run by the Paris Mosque," he said.

Many Islamic universities in the Muslim world have endorsed the course curriculum, which includes sociology, psychology and history among other subjects.

The course is being taught in the Catholic Institute's Humanities Faculty. It contains 400 hours of study, at the end of which students gain a diploma.

"We want imams to be open to the world, and especially to French society," Sedeki said.

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1) Focus - Imam course at Catholic university sparks controversy