About every six months, the German Bundestag (the Parliament) will pick something, discussing it at length, and kinda shock you with a thought-provoking idea. So ARD (public TV, Channel One) has brought this up.
The Bundestag is discussing the idea of all clergy members (of all religions) must be able to demonstrate knowledge of the German language. And they need to demonstrate this prior to arrival in Germany.
The religion most affected by this? Well....Islam.
There's an interesting statistic on Imams in Germany....that 90-percent arrive from another country. Only 10-percent are what you'd consider 'home-grown'. That number will increase in the next two decades as the university program (which Germany blessed and is in the 3rd year of 'production') will go and produce future Imams.
What's really driving this? I would offer three observations:
1. First, the Interior Minister (Seehofer, CSU) talked about this....saying that the Imams should have the language as a reference point, and understand Germany itself. On this, he has an interesting point. Without basic German, this outsider Imam is living in some bubble, and pretending that he's an insider....when he isn't.
2. There's this issue of German converts to Islam (there are some). How can they relate to a Imam in their local community.....who frankly doesn't care for them, or their language?
3. The Bundestag isn't talking about a top-level fluency. In fact, they carefully avoided saying A1, A2, B1, B2, or anything to a level. I suspect they haven't reached the point of saying which level is sufficient. Usually, B1 is the preferred level, and A2 might suffice in most cases.
So this brings me around to what happens if this is passed. It would put the Imam crowd in a difficult position. German is not a simple or easy language. Even if in a intensive program (four hours per day)....you can figure a minimum of nine months are necessary to reach the B1 level, and if your enthusiasm isn't that great, or you get hostile over language barriers (that crazy die, der or das stuff).....you might as well add another nine months on top of that.
I would offer this opinion....this will be a major barrier to getting Imams into the country, and that university program that Germany is running....will have to escalate and expand (maybe tripling what they handle currently).
Challenged in court after implementation? Oh, I expect some lawyers will focus on a challenge. But here's the thing.....religion is a right in Germany, but nothing in the Basic Law (the Constitution) says religion must be spoken in foreign language. The Catholics can admit that they do still use Latin, but services are mostly all in German.
It'll be curious to see how this goes in the end.
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