An American Example of Islamic Chaplaincy Education for the European Context

Niels Valdemar Vinding

doi:10.3390/rel12110969

Abstract

Against the background of increasing political and academic interest in imam and chaplaincy training and education in Europe, this article argues that the value and purpose of such education remains situated in an alignment between educational provider, student-participants, and employer–stakeholder expectations. These expectations are primarily about Muslim students’ learning and development, requirements and standards of employers, and contributions to community and society, and only secondly, the educations aim at meeting political expectations. The article explores aspects of Hartford Seminary’s success with its programme and alignment of education content and environment with student expectations and the labour market demand. This is supported theoretically by the input–environment–outcome assessment model. The structural and contextually embedded criteria for excellence are discussed and problematised, pointing both to the marginalisation of other drivers of education development that are not market aligned and to strategies of embedding religious authority with chaplains in institutions rather than with imams in mosques. In conclusion, the article highlights the self-sustaining logics that drive educational development but also points to corroborating social, economic, and welfare reasons for quality imam and chaplaincy education.

Highlights

For several decades and across almost every European polity, political calls for domestic imam training have been heard
Local mosque imams, and—more generally—Muslim leadership are caught in almost impossible gridlocks of expectations from all sides, from the boards of the mosques, from the Muslim coreligionists, from private and public employers, from media and political opinion makers, and from international peers (Rosenow-Williams 2012; Vinding 2013; Vinding 2018)
The ‘uniquely American model’ as Grewal and Coolidge phrased it, pointing at Hartford Seminary, is an interesting but particular example for the European context worth considering. It demonstrates a strong alignment of input, environment, and outcome that is employer and job market driven through the norms and standards of the American Chaplaincy Association

Summary

Introduction

For several decades and across almost every European polity, political calls for domestic imam training have been heard. In France, in 2003, the government formed the rather top–down Conseil Français du Culte Musulman (CFCM) to create a uniform training system for imams (Peter 2003; Maréchal 2003).. In 2003, in Denmark, a government integration policy green paper suggested looking into the quality and training of religious leaders, sparking both significant debate and a Danish pioneer study into imam education (Schepelern Johansen 2005). Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to have more imams and religious leaders trained in the UK. He called for British universities to teach Islamic Studies courses that were ‘redesigned to challenge extremism’ In Germany during those years, pioneering attempts at establishing university professorships in Islamic Theology and Islamic religious education resulted in a number of significant observations and recommendations by the German Science Council in their report on Recommendations on the Advancement of Theologies and Sciences Concerned with

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion