Germany Trains New Generation of Muslim Leaders

For a long time, the Ahmadiyya community offered the only imam training in Germany. The Ahmadiyya emerged at the end of the 19th century in what is now Pakistan. The community sees itself strictly as a religious reform movement. Since 2008, it has been training German-speaking imams in a seven-year course. They’re active in Ahmadiyya communities throughout Germany.

Four years ago, two very different groups entered the scene.  DITIB converted a former youth hostel in Dahlem, in the remote Eifel region of western Germany, into a training center in 2020. A year later, Islamic scholars from the University of Osnabrück and German Muslims with Bosnian roots created the “Islam College of Germany” (IKD).

Horst Seehofer who was interior minister at the time, praised the IKD’s foundation, saying it was good news for Muslims in Germany and a recognition of “the reality of life for Muslims living in Germany.”

A Push from the Interior Ministry
Both the DITIB and the Islamic College in Osnabrück have already sent several dozen graduates into the field. Imams from both institutions preside over prayers and lead Friday prayer services. But then in mid-December, a press release from the current Federal Interior Ministry caught many people off guard.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser announced that, after lengthy negotiations with Diyanet and DITIB, her ministry had agreed to gradually wind down the deployment of state-sponsored religious representatives from Turkey. “This is an important milestone for the integration and participation of Muslim communities in Germany,” Faeser said. Going forward, 100 imams are to be trained in Germany each year.

Germany is following France’s example: Since the beginning of this year, France has no longer allowed any new imams from abroad into the country. Rather, clerics are to be trained at French universities. This change was initiated by President Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of 2020 and has now come into force. Up until now, French imams largely came from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

Just like Osman Soyer, 36-year-old DITIB representative Eyüp Kalyon represents a new generation of Imams in Germany. Kalyon was born in Wuppertal holds German citizenship, and has a German high school diploma. His grandparents came from Turkey. And like many of the 28 current graduates, Kalyn and Soyer speak at least two languages fluently: German and Turkish.

A representative of the Interior Ministry spoke as the official guest of honor at the DITIB ceremony in Berlin. Jörn Thiessen is Head of the Department H (for Homeland, Cohesion and Democracy) in the Interior Ministry.

“This is exactly the right step: people who are here, who live here, who speak our language, who know the culture, and who form bridges into society, can do exactly what we want,” he told DW, explaining that the idea was to train 100 imams and religious officials each year and decrease the deployments from Turkey by the same number.

After many years of debate and delay, the training of Muslim religious officers in Germany is changing. But many questions — above all the financing of the DITIB imams without Turkish support — are still unanswered. A debate on the next steps is only slowly getting up to speed now.

Christoph Strack is a DW reporter. This article is published courtesy of Deutsche Welle (DW).