French President Emmanuel Macron
France News: France has banned the entry of imams who receive foreign funding in 2024. Not only this, among the foreign Imams living in France, only those foreign Imams who receive salary from the French Muslim Association will now be allowed to reside.
Regarding the ban in France on foreign Imams receiving funding from abroad, the French Interior Minister said that this order has come into effect from January this year. Along with this, foreign Imams who are paid from abroad will no longer be allowed to enter the border of France. France will now train imams at the local level.
Know why France took this decision?
Radicalism has increased in France in the last few years. Media reports suggest that the roles of foreign Imams in promoting fundamentalism in France have come to light. Since then, the Macron government of France became active and the French government has decided to take this step with the aim of maintaining religious tolerance. This is the reason why the French government has announced a ban on the entry of foreign Imams. In fact, only last year France was hit by a major riot. Refugees were held responsible for this.
Foreign Imams will be deported from April 1st
French broadcaster BFMTV has reported that after April 1, 2024, foreign imams already in the country will no longer be able to remain under the current terms of their immigration status. The new policy will broadly apply to about 300 or so imams from abroad, mainly from Algeria, Turkey and Morocco. Announcement of the new policy was sent to Türkiye and Algeria. At the same time, foreign Imams living in France can also be deported. But, if foreign imams start taking payments from the French Muslim Association instead of taking funding from foreign countries, then they may be allowed to live in France.
This law will not apply to 300 Imams
However, this law will not apply to the 300 imams who travel to France every year on the occasion of Ramadan. This law was promised by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2020. He then announced a number of measures to curb radicalism in France. They included ending foreign funding of mosques, among other proposals.
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