Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the French prime minister, reassured the leader of the country’s Muslims yesterday of his government’s respect for Islam following the recent crackdown on imams. Dalil Boubakeur, the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, said Mr Raffarin had told him the expulsion of five suspected radical imams in the past four months “did not reflect any hostility” towards France’s 5 million Muslims, the largest community in Europe. In return Mr Boubakeur promised to improve training for Islamic clerics and to draw up a list of authorised imams. According to the interior ministry 10% of France’s 1,000-1,500 imams are citizens, less than half speak French and many are illegal immigrants. Full Story
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