France To Ban Foreign-Funded Imams To Combat Radicalism
4th January 2024
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has announced that foreign imams who are paid from abroad will be barred from entering France as of January 1st of this year, as the country seeks to increase the number of locally trained imams.
French broadcaster BFMTV also notes that after 1 April 2024, foreign imams already in the country will not be able to stay under the current terms of their immigration status.
The new policy is largely directed at around 300 or so imams from overseas, drawn primarily from Algeria, Turkey, and Morocco. The announcement of the new policy was sent to Turkey and Algeria.