France’s Imams to Study “Rousseau”, “Ibn Kathir”

[JI7]

<PARIS, December 19 (IslamOnline.net) – Imams in France will study a miscellany of subjects on Islam and the history of secularism in the European country as a part of a government initiative to help train them.

Jean Jacques Rousseau’s 1762 Le Contract Social (the social contract), the ideas of Baron de Montesquieu and Ibn Kathir’s interpretation of the Noble Qur’an are among the mandatory subjects, according to an Interior Ministry document, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net.

The imams will also study Islamic subjets like the principles of jurisprudence, monotheism and interpretations of the Qur’an by different leading scholars.

“The main motive behind this program is the fact that imams do have little knowledge about French society and misinterpret some religious texts and their application,” Mohammed Mistiri, who along with researcher Pierre Lory helped draw up the eight-page document, told IOL.

“The program was mainly prepared to provide profound and basic information for imams on religious subjects and help them master the French language, given the dire need of translating the meanings of the Noble Qur’an and Hadiths (sayings) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to non-Arabic speakers,” added Mistiri, the director of the Institute of the Islamic Thought in Paris. >

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-12/19/article03.shtml

[gottaB]

1. That strikes me as very French

Although the organization Mestiri heads is actually the French office of the "International Institute of Islamic Thought."

[htuttle]

2. Wish we could do that with RW evangelists and our Constitution

Spend about a month on the implications of the First Amendment, with a historical analysis of the reasons they thought it was a good idea.

How about making classes like that mandatory for any religious institution that wants to get onto the Faith-Based government gravy train?

[DBoon]

4. yeah make them read Voltaire...

and Spinoza and maybe even Bertrand Russell.

Maybe bring them into the 21st century kicking and screaming

[Igel]

3. Umm ... that's not what the Institute has in mind, folks.

Nice eisegesis, though.

"The program was mainly prepared to provide profound and basic information for imams on religious subjects and help them master the French language, given the dire need of translating the meanings of the Noble Qur’an and Hadiths (sayings) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to non-Arabic speakers,” added Mistiri, the director of the Institute of the Islamic Thought in Paris."

You can spin it secular, or you can spin it religious.