SWITZERLAND [NEWS SERVICE] ⋅ The Canton of Zurich is launching a pioneering project: Imams and Muslim caregivers should be able to complete a training course. This is intended to provide the canton with contacts for integration issues.
Dario Thumb
“Zurich Competence” is the name of the pioneering project in the most populous canton. This is aimed at imams and women as well as men from the Muslim community. A further training course is intended to teach them, among other things, skills in the fields of context Switzerland, the canton of Zurich, education, communication and work, as the Justice Department wrote on Thursday. Theological reflections on current challenges are also on the curriculum.
There is a great need in the Muslim community for their imams and caregivers to receive adequate training. But so far there has been no training in Switzerland for Muslim caregivers, such as Reformed or Catholic pastors. With the project presented on Thursday, the canton now wants to close this gap.
Practical elements too
“We are convinced that participation is needed instead of exclusion,” said Justice Director Jacquline Fehr (SP) at a media conference on the project. It is important that the key people in the Muslim community bring the necessary tools with them for their central task.
The eight-day advanced training course was designed in collaboration with the Swiss Center for Islam and Society at the University of Friborg and with the support of the Association of Islamic Organizations in Zurich. In addition to the theory, the course should also include practical elements such as a brief assignment in administration or in educational and social institutions. Applicants must complete a multi-stage selection process, which also includes a security check
SVP opposes the project
According to the Justice Department, the project will last three years and cost around 407,000 francs. The aim of the canton is that, thanks to the course, it will be able to fall back on contact persons in questions of integration, youth work and religious education.
The idea was not met with much approval from the SVP of the Canton of Zurich. The project would only spend tax money and inflate the state apparatus further, she complained in a statement. The Justice Department is too “cowardly” to name the real problem: the “Koran interpretation, which calls for hatred and violence against so-called unbelievers.” In addition, the SVP criticizes the fact that the project leads to an “unjustifiable unequal treatment of different religious communities”.
On the other hand, the project is welcomed by the SP. The course is “an important element for a binding and trusting relationship at eye level,” said SP Cantonal Councilor Esther Straub in a statement.
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