Training imams in the Netherlands The failure of a post-secular endeavour

What are the reasons behind the failure of the Islamic theology and imamtraining
programmes at the Dutch universities? To address this question,
we employed qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews
(N = 38) conducted between July 2016 and January 2017. The sample
consists of stakeholders such as academics teaching in the programmes,
imams, Qur’an teachers, chairs of the largest Islamic organisations, and
Dutch ministry and municipality officials. We analysed the establishment
of the state-funded Islamic theology and imam-training programmes in
the Netherlands in the light of the different theoretical accounts about the
evolution of Dutch secularism after the de-pillarisation of the Dutch
society. The findings suggest that the failure of the programmes stemmed
from distrust in the intentions of the funding by the Dutch government,
lack of confidence in the expertise of the non-Muslim academics teaching
the programmes and refusal by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs
(Diyanet), to cooperate with the universities for the set-up of the programmes.
This study shows that future attempts for Islamic theology
programmes in the Dutch universities will need to establish better connections
with the grassroots of the Dutch Muslim communities.