BERLIN: Germany will stop accepting imams sent from Turkey and instead train the Muslim clerics on home soil in a bid to encourage integration, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

       An agreement has been reached with the Turkish-Islamic umbrella group DITIB to phase out foreign imams and train 100 a year in Germany to replace them, the ministry said in a statement.

       DITIB is the largest Islamic association in Germany and manages 900 mosque communities. Critics have accused the association, a branch of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Ankara, of acting as an extended arm of the Turkish government in Germany.

       Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the agreement was “an important milestone for the integration and participation of Mus-lim communities in Germany”.

       “We need religious leaders who speak our language, know our country and uphold our values,” Faeser said.

       “We want imams to get involved in the dialogue between religions and discuss questions of faith in our society.” There are around 5.5 million Muslims living in Germany, according to the German Islam Conference (DIK) — around 6.6 per cent of the population. The country has around 2,500 mosque communities.

       Until recently, the vast majority of imams in Germany had been trained abroad, mainly in Turkiye.

       Former chancellor Angela Merkel first spoke in favour of training imams on German soil in 2018, telling parliament it “will make us more independent and is necessary for the future”.

       In 2016, DITIB was accused of spying on members of the Turkish diaspora in Germany following a failed coup against Erdogan’s government, though the case was later dropped due to insufficient evidence.

       Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023