There will be no recognized training to become an imam in Amsterdam. The Vrije Universiteit, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the IPABO University of Applied Sciences had different expectations than the Contact Body for Muslims and Government (CMO).
The three educational institutions planned to set up a new HBO bachelor’s degree program for imams together with the CMO. The intention was for the training to start in September 2025.
In a joint statement, the CMO and the educational institutions announced that expectations ‘are too far apart’. It was not only about the educational content, but also about the ‘legal feasibility of the proposed structure’ between CMO and the educational institutions.
The institutions still underline the social importance of such training and regret that it will not happen. If others want to set up such a training course in the future, they may use the ‘insights’ that the current exploration has yielded.
The government decided in 2023 that such a recognized training is necessary in the Netherlands, because Muslim communities currently work a lot with foreign imams who are less familiar with the Dutch context.
