Awqaf Ministry to address shortage in mosque imams

By Petra - Apr 30,2014 - Last updated at Apr 30,2014

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Wednesday said the Awqaf Ministry has taken short- and long-term measures to address the shortage of qualified imams.

The ministry is working with local universities that teach Sharia (Islamic law) to open a BA programme for imams, Ensour said in a letter to Islamic Action Front (IAF) Secretary General Hamzah Mansour, who has urged the government to refrain from recruiting Egyptian clerics for the Kingdom’s mosques, expressing concerns over a possible sectarian spillover from Egypt as a result of such a decision.

Ensour said the decision to recruit Egyptian imams was taken for religious purposes and will not lead to divisions in the Kingdom, commending Mansour’s letter as a reflection of the Islamists’ keenness on safeguarding national interests.

However, he noted that the IAF would have reacted differently if Jordan had hired Egyptian clerics when Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was in power.

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