Some 40 imams too part in training workshops and study days in a project launched in September 2015 conducted by the Goethe Institute and in partnership with the Council of the Moroccan Community living abroad, (CCME), the European Council of Moroccan Oulémas (CEOM) and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Germany. The aims of the program were the mechanisms and methods of youth coaching, the youth radicalization, the political system in Germany and political and social participation.
This program concluded on Wednesday 30 August 2017 by a visit to the regional parliament of the german city of Hessen, initiated by the Badr mosque of the of Wiesbaden where a workshop for the visit of the regional parliament was organized. After the inaugural workshop, the imams were received at the parliament by officials who provided explanations on the history and role of the regional parliament. The objective was to assimilate the legislative and democratic mechanisms and the approach of election of political representatives.
The imams assisted to the screening of a documentary detailing the influence of the parliament of the region and its functioning mechanisms . The imams also had the opportunity to follow the debate of the deputies of the parliament.
The imams were then received by MP Gerhard Merz, chairman of the socialist group’s integration and social affairs committee in the parliament of Hessen, who welcomed the imams’ initiative to learn the German language and appreciated the organization of the visit.
According to Mr Merz, a member of the Parliament for more than 12 years, the region’s parliament is received for the first time a delegation of high-level Muslim religious leaders.
The imams have focused on the rise of Islamophobia in Germany and the content of moderate party programs to counter this problem. They alsosaid that the imam’s role in peace within the German society is important and were unhappy with the negative image and stereotypes imputed to imams by some media and politicians.
For his part, Mr Abdessamad El Yazidi, coordinator of the project for the linguistic and cultural upgrading of imams at the Goethe Institute, highlighted in his speech the areas of work of imams in the German context and their role in creating secure meeting spaces, based on the values of respect and living together. He also called on politicians to back initiatives of this kind for the advantage of moderate imams.
CCME
