ALGIERS: Algeria will impose more government control on training for the country’s imams in a bid to fight Islamic extremism, its religious affairs minister said in comments published in local media on Wednesday.

The former French colony in North Africa has a difficult history with religious fundamentalism, having fought hardline Islamists during a bloody civil war in the 1990s that left some 200,000 people dead.

His comments came as the international community prepares to tackle militants from the extremist Islamic State (IS) group who have seized swathes of Iraq and Syria.

“An institute jointly supervised by the higher education and religious affairs ministries will be created at the beginning of the next university year to train imams,” Religious Affairs Minister Mohamed Aissa told Algerian daily Al-Watan

“Anyone holding a higher diploma in Islamic studies can’t preach in our mosques before they take the training, which lasts one month, followed by an exam,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 18th , 2014