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Monday 21 Sep 2015 - 16:59 Makkah mean time-8-12-1436
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Rabat (IINA) – France intends to send its imams for training in Morocco, where they will be educated about the “values of openness and tolerance”, it was announced on Saturday as French President François Hollande began a two-day visit to the North African country, France 24 News reported.
The training will take place at the Mohammed VI Institute in Rabat - a facility opened in March this year with the goal of educating Muslim scholars and imams from all over the world.
A joint declaration from Paris and Rabat said the training would promote "an Islam with the right balance" that conforms to "values of openness and tolerance” and "fully anchored in the values of the Republic and secularism".
The move was welcomed by the French Muslim group, the Union of Mosques in France (UMF).
“The UMF … is convinced that the training of imams with the necessary knowledge to promote a balanced interpretation of Islam must be at the heart of any prevention program in the fight against extremists,” the organization’s president Mohammed Moussaoui said.
Around 50 French imams could be trained at the institute each year, thereafter they would return to France for further academic training on the role of religion in France and the right of worship, members of Hollande’s team said.
The training program will “demonstrate that Islam is a religion of peace in France", said Hollande.
The move comes amid debate in France over the role of imams in combatting radicalisation among the country’s large and diverse Muslim community, particularly in the wake of January's terror attacks in Paris.
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced in February that French imams would be encouraged to take civics lessons as part of anti-radicalization efforts, while in June it was revealed that France has deported 40 foreign imams for "preaching hatred" in the past three years.
In Tangier on Saturday, Hollande said that establishing closer cooperation between France and Morocco in the fight against terrorism was a major purpose of his visit.
AB/IINA
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