Three German universities are to introduce state-funded Islamic study courses, enabling Muslim clerics to receive their full training in Germany, Education Minister Annette Schavan announced on Thursday.
Islamic study centres are to be set up at the universities of Tuebingen, Muenster and Osnabrueck that would offer bachelor programmes in Islamic studies as of next year.
Each centre is to receive 4 million euros (5.5 million dollars) in state funding over the next five years. Schavan said an important aim was to train home-grown Muslim clerics to teach religion at school.
“We want Islamic religion classes in as many schools as possible in Germany,” she said.
In addition, Schavan stressed that these centres of Islamic expertise would promote critical debate.
“The universities can develop a historically critical approach to the Koran,” Schavan added.
Until now, virtually all imams in Germany have been trained abroad. The current system is seen as a barrier to Muslim integration, as many clerics, from Turkey or Arabic states, speak little German and lack knowledge of German society.
Two further universities applied for state funding to offer Islamic study courses but their applications were turned down or postponed. The education ministry chose faculties that already had expertise in Islam.
Last week, the university of Osnabrueck launched a programme offering further education to imams who had already been trained abroad.
Islamic theology has been available in Germany as an academic discipline, but training courses for Islamic teachers or social workers have not existed.
Germany has a well-developed state funded system to train Catholic or Protestant professionals. Two institutes - in Potsdam and Heidelberg - receive state funding to train Jewish rabbis.