Militant Islam Monitor > Satire > Dutch to train Imams at taxpayers cost ensuring homegrown terrorism -Muslims say"Minister's interference violates secular nature of Western countries"
Dutch to train Imams at taxpayers cost ensuring homegrown terrorism -Muslims say"Minister's interference violates secular nature of Western countries"
Contact Group for Muslims and Government feigns cooperation while other group rejects plans as"ruse to interfere in Muslim affairs"
November 28, 2005
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Civilisation and it's Malcontents: Dutch government courses aim to teach Muslims how to live in society MIM:Imam Saleh refused to shake Integration Minister Rita Verdonk's at free speech conference 'because she is a woman". Verdonk responded by saying;"I can see we will have a lot to talk about". Note how a Muslim Council of the Netherlands head Boujoufi, opposed the state sponsored Imam training cynically claims that " Holland is a secular society" and has no right to expect anything from it;s Muslim residents, while Muslims openly reject ,oppose, and preach against Dutch societal values. See: Islamist Radical Concepts "Freedom of expression " Report on the Conference of Imams in Holland http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/366 http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/328 http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/324 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dutch University Set to Train Imams http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-11/26/article03.shtml | |
| THE HAGUE, November 26, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Dutch government has signed a declaration of intent with a local university to train imams in what the government said was an endeavor to cut down the number of foreign imams to zero by 2008. "Choosing imams remains the domain of the mosques, but this declaration of intent will allow (us) to propose a complete program in concert with Muslim organizations and the teaching world," justice ministry spokesman Arnoud Strijbis told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Saturday, November 26. The Contact Group for Muslims and Government (CMO), the government's preferred partner organization, will work with Amsterdam's Inholland college to create a four-year program for imams. Some 375,000 euros (439,000 dollars) have been allocated to the project by Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk and Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven. Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inholland college J. Elbers said that the four-year training program will kick off in 2006. The Dutch debate over imam training was heightened by the November 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by 19-year-old Dutch-Moroccan Mohammad Bouyeri for a film deemed offensive by Muslims. There are some 450 mosques in the Netherlands, 1,000 Islamic cultural centers, two Islamic universities and 42 preparatory schools, according to recent estimates. Muslims make up one million of the Netherlands's 16 million population. Turks represent 80 percent of the Muslim minority. Europe's main rights and democracy watchdog, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), expressed concern in May 2005 at the increasing Dutch intolerance towards Muslims and the "climate of fear" under which the minority was living. No Foreigners Until now, almost all the imams in the country's mosques have been of Turkish or Moroccan origin but the Dutch government says it wants no foreign imams from 2008. But CMO chairman Ayhan Tunca said the agreement is not obligatory and take into account previous agreements signed by the government and Muslim organizations. He cited a deal between the Netherlands and Turkey, which gave Turkish mosques in the Netherlands the right to bring imams from the Turkish Ministry of Waqfs. Since September 2005, the University of Amsterdam has been training a group of around 20 student imams who are only allowed to preach Muslims in hospitals and prisons. Along with qualifying imams, the government plan would make everyone who has not spent eight years in the Netherlands during the period of compulsory education (from six to the age of 16) take integration classes. The issue of imams training has recently taken central stage in several European countries. Major Swiss Christian groups put forward a proposal to establish a government-supervised institute to educate imams on the "liberal" lifestyle in western societies, which split Muslim activists in the country down the middle. German integration minister Marieluise Beck has released a 20-point strategy recommending that imams coming to Germany should have knowledge of the German language and society. |
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http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-03/02/article01.shtml
Dutch Muslims Counter Govt. Plans to Train Imams
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Imams, on their way to classrooms. |
By Nasreddine Djebbi, IOL Correspondent
THE HAGUE, March 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Dutch Muslims have urged the government to adopt their own version of qualifying and training imams with some help from experts and specialists across Dutch universities.
"The Muslim Council of the Netherlands, which liaise with the government on behalf of the Muslim minority, held talks on February 18, 19 with Dutch officials to direct the qualification programs for imams and preachers," the Council's deputy Secretary General, Edris Boujoufi, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, March 1.
"We are now addressing how to translate the recommendations of these talks into action, including the right of the Muslim minority to prepare their imams with the help of Dutch experts and socialists."
There are some 450 mosques in the Netherlands, 1,000 Islamic cultural centers, two Islamic universities and 42 preparatory schools, according to recent estimates.
Muslims make up one million of the Netherlands's 16 million population. Turks represent 80 percent of the Muslim minority.
Dutch Muslims were reportedly subjected to religious discrimination and racist attacks on their places of worship in 2004.
Even before the November killing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, following his insulting documentary about Islam, Dutch Muslims have been targeted by the extremist agenda of the influential right-wing parties.
Interference
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Verdonk's interference into Muslims' affairs violates the secular nature of the Western countries, particularly the Netherlands," said Boujoufi. |
Boujoufi roundly rejected Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk's plan on imams and immigrants, regarding it as a ruse to interfere into Muslims' affairs.
Along with qualifying imams, the plan would make everyone who has not spent eight years in the Netherlands during the period of compulsory education (from six to the age of 16) take integration classes.
The government has so far put forward 10 plans to qualify imams, but endorsed last month a program introduced by Amsterdam University.
The government will grant the university 1.5 million euros to that end and decided to deny visas to imams as of 2008, according to an education ministry's official.
"Verdonk's interference into the Muslim affairs violates the secular nature of the Western countries, particularly the Netherlands," Moroccan-born Boujoufi added.
"It takes 10 years to prepare a qualified and professional imam and not just one year as suggested by the minister."
Representatives of the Turkish minority, on their part, said they are committed to an agreement signed between the Turkish and Amsterdam governments, entitling Ankara to qualify and train imams for the Turks in the European country.
The issue of imams training has recently taken central stage in several European countries.
Major Swiss Christian groups put forward a proposal to establish a government-supervised institute to educate imams on the "liberal" lifestyle in western societies, which split Muslim activists in the country down the middle.
German integration minister Marieluise Beck has released a 20-point strategy recommending that imams coming to Germany should have knowledge of the German language and society.
French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin pressed last year for teaching imams the French language and culture.
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