Germany to stop accepting imams from Türkiye

The German Interior Ministry has announced that Berlin will stop accepting imams sent from Türkiye, and reached a deal with Ankara to train the Muslim clerics in Germany.

An agreement has been reached with the Turkish-Islamic umbrella group DİTİB to phase out foreign imams and train 100 a year in Germany to replace them, the German ministry said in a statement. The training of imams to serve in Germany will be carried out through a joint venture between DİTİB and the German authorities.

An additional training program will be established in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In the training of imams, it is aimed to cooperate with the Islamic College of Germany within the University of Osnabrück.

The German Interior Ministry's statement also emphasized that DİTİB is an association established in accordance with German laws. DİTİB is the largest Islamic association in Germany and manages 900 mosque communities.

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

"We need religious leaders who speak our language, know our country and uphold our values," Faeser said.

"We want imams to get involved in the dialogue between religions and discuss questions of faith in our society."

There are around 5.5 million Muslims living in Germany, according to the German Islam Conference (DIK) - around 6.6 percent of the population.

The country has around 2,500 mosque communities.

Until recently, the vast majority of imams in Germany had been trained abroad, mainly in Türkiye.