In France, Ramadan rhymes with puzzles for many mosques managers. The practitioners are particularly numerous in this period, but the imams increasingly rare. Prayer places can still count on a few dozen foreign religious, from Algeria, Morocco or Turkey, Le Temps du Ramadan. But for the past year, this system of detached imams, paid and sent by foreign countries has been prohibited the rest of the year. Hope for mosques leaders: training centers are increasing to meet demand. The Great Mosque of Paris thus inaugurated last week a new place to train imams and chaplains in Vitry-sur-Seine, south of Paris.
Students were cramped in the premises of the Great mosque of Paris. Today, they will be able to take advantage of the three levels of this former Algerian consulate: several classrooms, a library and, of course, prayer rooms. The Great Mosque thus continues the development of its training institute, which also has five annexes spread over the territory.
The inauguration of the school was an opportunity to graduate to sixty students from the 2024 promotion. But very few, however, intend to exercise their new role of imam or chaplain, to the great regret of one of their teachers, Mohamed Amine Haddou: “ Many students are just studying for general culture, because conditions – for the moment – are not clear for the recruitment of imams. So most people follow the training to know their knowledge. »»
No status for imams
Because there is still no official status for imams in France, unlike Catholic priests for example. And their remuneration depends on the means of mosques, and therefore of gifts; Count between 1,200 and € 1,500 net per month for a mission at elastic hours. It is for this reason that Mohamed, 35, freshly graduated, does not intend to abandon his professional career: ” I will surely start working little by little in the field, trying to juggle between the two. Anyone needs to know what they are going to eat at the end of the month, where they are going to sleep, have the means to pay for what you need … My work as a computer scientist pays better. »»
He will therefore only be able to devote a few hours a week to his new role as an imam. A frustrating observation for the rector of the great mosque of Paris. But Chems-Eddine Hafiz prefers to highlight recent advances. Now, the Imam profession is referenced by the National Employment Agency, France Work, on its website. And today there are Imam job advertisements: ” Barely a month ago, you did not find them. To be an imam, you had to look for ” Sociocultural animator ”. It is not normal. Today, we have to make it a job, assure him social security, the fact that he can have a retirement. But first, let’s form them. When we have trained imams, we can, at that time, may think of pooling. »»
Another advance concerns the chaplains in prison. They will soon have the status of occasional employees of the public service, and therefore access to social protection. The decree should be published in the coming months.
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