France considers training for religious teachers to counter radicalisation

Foreign Islamic preachers would be obliged to take an officially recognised diploma before being allowed to work in France, under measures being considered by the French government to combat the spread extremism and the radicalisation of young people.

The rules, if adopted, would affect more than 70 per cent of imams and Muslim community leaders in France.

An unpublished report suggests officials should introduce measures to control who influences France's Muslim population of about 5.5 million people. Formal and "universal" training for Muslim religious leaders, it says, will discourage extremism, lead to greater integration and put imams on a level with clergy from other main religions.

However, Marco Ventura, a professor of law and religion at the University of Leuven in Belgium, who has seen the report, said it raised the controversial question of government meddling in religion.

"This would be state intervention that reached to the heart of the Muslim community and affected its internal organisation," he said.

"In many ways, though, it represents a return to 19th-century ideas of involving the state in religious training with the aim of modernisation. In those days, the targets were Jews and Christians." The document itself notes that "there are precedents for what is being suggested".

Officials estimate there are 1,800 imams working in the country, with fewer than 30 per cent holding French nationality.