Official Imam Training in the Netherlands Cancelled: Minister Van Gennip Explains Why

There will be no official training for imams in the Netherlands, writes outgoing Minister Van Gennip (Social Affairs). in a letter to the House of Representatives. This professional higher education course would start in September next year, but the various educational institutions that would develop the course together with the Contact Group for Muslims and the Government (CMO) cannot agree on the its content.

The Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Ipabo University of Applied Sciences had been working with the CMO since last September to design such a training course for imams, but due to “difference of opinion inevitable” they were unable to reach an agreement. “The ideas about the educational content and the legal feasibility of the proposed cooperation structure were too far apart.” The minister does not report what exactly differed from the parties.

Van Gennip says that it is “very sad” that the training will not take place now, also because all the parties involved say that “they fully support the social need for Dutch imam training . The minister says that she will continue to make efforts to get such a training course off the ground.

Official training as an imam is a long-term wish of the House of Representatives, which already passed a motion in 2015 by Denk MP Kuzu that this should be introduced. From 2006 to 2013, Inholland University of Applied Sciences offered a higher professional education course to become an imam, but that ended because the course was making losses. According to Kuzu and other MPs, training recognized by the Dutch government was important, as imams now often come from abroad and therefore have little respect for the living environment of Dutch Muslims.