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German Protestant head says a European Islam needed for dialogue

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(c) Anli Serfontein 2010 - Nikolaus Schneider in Trier By Anli Serfontein Trier , Germany, 23 November (ENInews)--A European form of Islam needs to develop before a meaningful interfaith dialogue can take place on the continent, the new leader of Germany's 24 million Protestants has said. "We are only at the beginning of a serious inter-religious discussion on a theologically high level and that is because there are problems with finding counterparts," the Rev. Nikolaus Schneider told ENInews in a 17 November interview in Trier. "The imams who come from Turkey to Germany can hardly speak German and that means that we need to train imams in Germany at our universities," said Schneider, who was elected the new chairperson of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on 9 November during a meeting of its governing synod in Hanover. He had been the EKD's acting leader since February, when his predecessor, the Rev. Margot Kässmann, stood down