Training Imams and the Future of Islam in France

There has been a growing political urgency in several Western European countries to institutionalize and create facilities for imamtraining. With the formation of the Conseil Français du Culte Musulman (CFCM) earlier this year the French government aims to create a uniform training system for imams. This state-sponsored institutionalization of Islam offers more 'traditional' organizations the opportunity to appropriate 'French Islam', possibly at the expense of alternative structures that have emerged in the French Muslim community over the last few decades