Germany and Turkey agree to train imams who serve Germany's Turkish immigrant community in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — Germany and Turkey agreed Thursday to gradually end the deployment of Turkish state-employed imams to Germany and to instead have imams trained in Germany to serve the country's large Turkish immigrant community.

German authorities have sought for many years to increase the number of imams educated domestically to decrease the influence of foreign countries on its Muslim communities.

As part of the joint German-Turkish training initiative, 100 imams are to be educated in Germany annually starting next year, while the number of imams assigned from Turkey is to be gradually reduced by the same number.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the agreement "an important milestone for the integration and participation of Muslim communities in Germany.”

"We need preachers who speak our language, know our country and stand up for our values," Faeser said. "We want imams to get involved in the dialogue between religions and discuss questions of faith in our society.”

About 5.5 million of Germany’s 83.2 million residents are Muslim, and almost 3 million people in the country are Turkish or have Turkish roots.

For many decades, the Turkish government has exercised influence on the large immigrant community through the Muslim religious leaders it sent to work in Germany.

Relations between Germany's majority Christian population and the Muslim minority traditionally have been complicated. Extremist attacks committed in the name of the Islamic State group resulted in raids and bans of Muslim associations deemed radical.

Racism, hatred and sometimes violence against Muslims in Germany are widespread and often part of their everyday experience, according to a recent report.

The agreement on the new imam training came together after “lengthy negotiations” with Turkey’s Diyanet, or Presidency of Religious Affairs, and the union of Turkish-Islamic cultural organizations in Germany, known by its Turkish acronym DITIB, the German Interior Ministry said.

With around 900 mosque communities, DITIB is the largest Islamic association in Germany.

The agreement with Turkey calls for DITIB to be in charge of training the 100 imams in Germany each year, but the aim is to have the men supplement their religious educations with classes at the Islamic College Germany.

The Islamic College Germany, or Islamkolleg Deutschland, is based in Osnabrueck in northern Germany. It was founded by Muslim community associations, theologians and academics in 2019 to provide practical and theological training for German-speaking religious staff and imams for local communities.

The German government also wants to promote courses for future imams that include German language teaching and religious education, as well as classes about history, political issues and German values, German news agency dpa reported.

Turkish immigrants started coming in significant numbers more than 60 years ago, when West Germany recruited “guest workers” from Turkey and elsewhere to help the country advance economically.

The mostly young men were often employed in coal mining, steel production and the auto industry. Many who initially came as temporary workers decided to stay and bring their families, giving Berlin and other cities in western and southwestern Germany large immigrant communities.