MOSCOW (Sputnik) — France needs a new association to oversee building of the mosques and training Islamic religious leaders in the country, President Francois Hollande said on Thursday.
The French President said on his Twitter he supported the creation of "a national association to raise the funds for building of mosques, training of imams" after stating that at the moment "the majority of imams are educated abroad and sometimes do not speak [French] language."
In July, French authorities have opened the debate on the ban on foreign funding for mosques following a number of terrorist attacks linked to ISIS, a jihadist terrorist group claiming adherence to fundamentalist Islam and outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
On July 14, a truck was driven into a crowd in Nice celebrating Bastille Day with 86 people killed and more than 400 injured. On July 26 another attack was carried out in a church near Rouen where a priest was killed and another person wounded.
