VOA常速英语2008年-France Starts Muslim Imam Training

By Lisa Bryant
Paris
09 March 2008

France has launched a groundbreaking program to educate future imams and Muslim chaplains about the country and its values. The goal: to put a French stamp on Islam, the second largest religion in France. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.

The courses are being held in an unusual location - the Catholic Institute of Paris, an institution better known for training priests and Christian¹ scholars than Muslim clerics. Established in collaboration² with the French government and the Paris mosque³, the program began in January with a largely male class of 25. It aims to give the students a broad understanding of France's legal, historical and social mores⁴.

What the year-long program does not do, says Interior Ministry⁵ spokesman Gerard Gachet is offer theology training.

Gachet says religious training for the future clerics is the role of Muslim institutes. But the government believes the courses on France will help shape a French Islam that is perfectly⁶ in touch with society.

The students at the Catholic Institute course are largely foreign born, with many coming from North and sub-Saharan Africa. The program's director, Olivier Bobineau, says they are eager to learn.

Bobineau says he hopes the students end up with a better understanding of the relationship between politics and religion in France - and the values and rules that exist here.

Experts say the courses fill a critical gap. Most of France's five to seven million Muslims - the largest Muslim community in Western Europe - were born here. By contrast, roughly 80 percent of the 1,200 imams preaching in French mosques⁷ and prayer houses were born overseas. Some cannot converse⁸ with their own faithful, much less understand French laws and social customs.

Sociologist⁹ Franck Fregosi specializes in Islam at the National Center for Scientific Research, a French think tank.

Fregosi says foreign-born imams are often unprepared for their jobs in France. He syas many Turkish clerics, for example, do not know anything about French history, some preachers cannot speak French.

Djelloul Seddiki, the director of the Al Ghazali imam training program at the Paris mosque agrees.

For example, Seddiki says, the mosque's Koranic program can teach students that a man can have up to four wives - in accordance with Muslim tradition. But polygamy is illegal in France.

The Catholic Institute's training has another goal: To ensure a moderate, tolerant Islam flourishes in France, which has been the target of Islamist terrorist attacks.

For now, the students come only from the Paris mosque. Those affiliated¹⁰ with other French Muslim organizations, including the popular, more fundamentalist Union of Islamic Organizations of France, do not participate - reflecting larger, political divisions within France's Muslim community.

What is clear is that the clerics graduating from the program are desperately¹¹ needed. Roughly half of all French mosques have no preachers. But the new graduates are not necessarily assured of jobs.

Djelloul Seddiki of the Paris mosque.

Seddiki says many Muslim communities in France simply cannot afford to pay the salaries of full-time¹² imams. Some of those who do preach here, from Algeria or Turkey, are paid for by their governments. The rest preach part time and sometimes free of charge.

France's Muslim community is trying to come up with its own means of financing its clerics. Seddiki, for one, believes this will happen - in time.

1 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

2 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

3 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

4 mores   

n.风俗，习惯，民德，道德观念

参考例句：

• The mores of that village are hard to believe.那村子的习俗让人难以置信。
• We advocate a harmonious society where corruption is swept away,and social mores are cleared.我们提倡弊绝风清，建设一个和谐社会。

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

8 converse   

vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反

参考例句：

• He can converse in three languages.他可以用3种语言谈话。
• I wanted to appear friendly and approachable but I think I gave the converse impression.我想显得友好、平易近人些,却发觉给人的印象恰恰相反。

9 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

10 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

11 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

12 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。