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In this article, the occupation of the imam is analysed using a profession-theoretical approach. Following Oevermann, we view professionalised action as a relational practice, characterised by a paradoxical unity of diffuseness and specificity. Drawing on empirical data on imams in Switzerland, we highlight several factors that contribute to a shift towards more diffuse social relationships between professionals and their clients: task-specific boundaries become blurred, and temporal and spatial limits break down. These factors help to explain why imams in Switzerland report feeling stressed and overburdened. We argue that the role of the imam can, in principle, be conceptualised as a profession. From the perspective of a power approach to professions, however, the concept of profession can only be applied to the occupation of an imam to a limited extent, as it is not universal, but remains reserved for men.

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.

This article is based on the findings from a research project, referred to hereafter as #ImamsBritain, commenced with a series of discussions with Imams in the north of England. The role of the Imam has undergone far-reaching changes over the last thirty years chiefly due to the changing socio-economic and political climate, which in turn has directly affected the needs of Muslim communities. Consequently, Imams are now seen as professionals who need a wider range of pastoral care skills that go beyond those of their traditional role, which was mainly focused on religious teaching and spiritual guidance, The second stage of the data analysis for the research involved the exploratory Group Delphi technique, in which the Imam respondents underwent the processes of two critical reflections on the data collected. The resultant findings reflect their individual perceptions of the kind of training and development they need. This provides a unique framework for constructing a professional guide for Imams in Great Britain. The discussions and critical analyses in this paper draw on the discourses of professionalisation and pastoral care and relevant reports and reviews on Imam training in Europe and Canada.

This article discusses the first experiences of a supplementary imam training program that has been designed in the Netherlands for community-based imams, female religious leaders and mosque committee members. This “Professionalization of Imams in the Netherlands” program (PIN) was set up as a cooperation of the Representative Council of Muslims (CMO) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, supported by state-subsidy. The article discusses how the initiators maneuvered within and beyond the politicized burden of expectation that has surrounded the establishment of European-based imam training programs for decades now. The article provides a unique insight into the program’s design, its collaborative partners and participants’ experiences, understanding the program as a site of deliberative engagement. It shows how the stakeholders ideally see ownership of the curriculum and trainee recruitment as a shared responsibility for the Muslim community and the public educational institution, whereas the state is willing to finance it. The article outlines how in this attempt the stakeholders must deal with some paradoxical dynamics that influence this notion of “shared ownership”. Sharing these analytical observations and recommendations will hopefully help stakeholders involved in setting up similar European programs to make rational decisions on content and format of (future) supplementary programs, within and beyond fields of power, authority and interest.

Women’s presence and role in contemporary mosques in Western Europe is debated within and outside Muslim communities, but research on this topic is scarce. Applying a feminist lens on religion and gender, this article situates the mosque as a socially constituted space that both enables and constrains Western European Muslim women’s religious formation, identity-making, participation, belonging, and activism. Informed by qualitative interviews with twenty Muslim women residing in Norway and the United Kingdom, the article argues that women’s reflexive engagement simultaneously expresses compliance with, and challenges to, male power and authority in the mosque. It contends that a complex practice of accommodation and resistance to “traditional„ gender norms is rooted in the women’s discursive positioning of “authentic Islam„ as gender equal. While men typically inhabit positions of religious and organizational power in mosques, the article also suggests the importance of male allies in women’s struggles for inclusion in the mosque.