From the 1st of January 2024, France will no longer allow imams from abroad on its territory. A rather strict measure that reflects the path decided by President Macron two years ago to neutralize the internal risks of the so-called "Islamic separatism" rather inclined to foreign influences through imams. The French Islamic community is the second largest in the country after the Catholic one. According to estimates, out of 67 million inhabitants, there are believed to be 6 million Muslims, although other estimates indicate much lower numbers (3.5 million). In any case, control over imams and their preaching in mosques was deemed necessary after the increase in anti-Semitism and the very high risk of attacks caused by extremist fringes.
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Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in a letter to the countries of origin of most of the religious (Morocco, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia) emphasized that imams already residing in France will be able to remain on the territory after April only if they have a new status. At the same time, a growing part of the imams who already provide their service in mosques will have to be trained in France, be regularly registered, pay taxes through the same mosque associations.
Macron had announced in 2020 that he would change the rules to limit foreign influences on mosques. Currently, there are about 300 foreign imams sent mainly from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey. The new rules will come into effect in four months through a kind of specific framework law that will allow the clerics to be recruited autonomously. The mosques will pay them directly. Of course, Darmanin specified, the goal is not to prevent foreign imams from preaching in France, but to ensure that no official from another country exerts negative influences on French soil.
In recent years in France, a dedicated university course has been created, offered by the French Institute of Islamic Studies (IFI) and the "Forum of Islam in France" (Forif) has been launched in Paris. The body representing Muslims in the country aims to represent more effectively the second French religious group and to serve as a permanent contact point for the government. A structure that roughly takes inspiration from the German Conference on Islam.
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