The University of Rome LUISS Guido Carli, in partnership with the Italian University John Cabot organized from 3 to 5 November 2014 in Rome, an international conference on “Imams in Western Europe.”
A number of academics and researchers representing European and Arab and North American countries took part to this meeting.
The initiator of the event, Mr. Mohamed hashas, a young Moroccan doctoral student at the LUISS University, said that “for almost two centuries, the Islamic thought and Islamic religious authority are trying to rethink the tradition to live a better present and future.”
According to him, “The imams have never had a specific role in Islamic history. They act as spiritual leaders of the Community, preside daily prayers, preach on Friday, holidays and other occasions, organize meetings (halaqas) about religious education in mosques …”
“In the absence of state institutions that guide the Islamic community in Europe, the Imam assumed the role of a guide, which gives him more power, a power often misused, outside legal and religious references recognized by the community of ulamas, “he observed.
“This meeting is therefore to study the religious institution from a theological point of view, as well as from the sociologist, anthropological, and institutional ones ” he said, lamenting the lack of academic studies on the subject.
This conference is, in the opinion of many stakeholders, ” An event of great cultural significance especially as it relates to a complex issue that concerns Europe where a large Muslim community lives” “The speakers hope that this meeting will lead to ideas that will help policy makers to better understand the true spiritual role that Imams are expected to play, that of directing and guiding the members of this community.
Twenty interventions were scheduled in the agenda of this conference including on the status, role and training of the Imam in Western Europe, as well as the problems posed by this institution in a secular West where Imams must adapt to religious, cultural, social and economic aspects different from those existing in Muslim countries.
